Down the Drain

Are you ready? It's time to be an activist! Don't worry, no picketing or getting arrested involved! In fact, it will make you feel great! It's about reducing the massive piles of discarded plastic water bottles that litter our planet, fattening your wallet and getting healthier all at the same time!

Check this out: one of my favorite groups, the Environmental Working Group, has done a study and found that bottled water consumption has more than quadrupled in the last 20 years. This seems like it should be a good thing, right? Of course, drinking water every day instead of soda is great for your health, but tossing those plastic water bottles in the trash is the problem, and a study by the EWG has found that many bottled water companies won't disclose what's in their water! That's a bit frightening if you ask me. Not to mention the fact the creating all those plastic bottles consumes energy and contributes to greenhouse gasses. AND the fact that bottled water can cost 1900 times MORE than tap water!!!! Yikes!!

A better solution? Install a water filter on your kitchen faucet and fill a reusable water bottle like a SIGG bottle. I have an ancient kitchen, so I haven't been able to install a filter, so instead we fill and re-fill gallon jugs at the local co-op's water station. We make about a trip a week and fill 8 gallons of water. It's easy and it's cheap. If you decide to do that, just make sure you're refilling your jugs at a good store where you can see the water quality report from the company that's maintaining the water station.

For more about your drinking water , click here to see the report, and pledge to reduce your plastic water bottle use!

To order a SIGG bottle, try the web site backcountry.com. I've ordered from them and they're very friendly, and quickly replaced a bottle that arrived with a small dent in it. I'm on my second SIGG in about 3 years, only because I use it every day and it's pretty much attached to my hip. I heart my SIGG bottle!!

See, being an activist isn't so bad! And now you have an excuse to go out and buy a cute, new water bottle! It will pay for itself in just a few refills, and you can feel good that your cash-- and the planet-- is no longer going down the drain!

I'm Obsessed!

I don't know what has come over me, but I am suddenly obsessed with a certain color. It's what I call Peacock Blue. It's that teal-y, green-y, blue-y color that is in peacock tail feathers, and I am completely in love with it. I probably sound insane to most of you, but you artists out there know what I'm talking about! So, I had to have, possess, own this color NOW! I had a vision to update my living room--which already has lots of warm tones of yellow, red, and orange--and adding that blue as a counter-balance seemed the perfect solution.
I was on the hunt. I headed for the fabric store, with no luck. Everything looked too blue or too green. Nothing in the beautiful hue I was obsessed with. Next stop, Pier 1. They have lots of tropical colors there, and I hoped that they might have just what I was looking for. I walked in the front door and low and behold, there it was: the pillow! What I call my Big Lebowski pillow (it ties the room together):

See that blue-green color around the edges? THAT'S the color! Peacock Blue! Yahoo! So, I grabbed the pillow and kept looking. I found a lantern and some yellow grassy-looking things and left with a twinkle in my eye! I needed just one more piece (for now) to really make the room sing, and I knew just the place-- Homegoods! If you have not experienced the awe and wonder that is Homegoods, I am sorry for you. If it's because you don't have one in your town, I am doubly sorry for you. If it's because you just never got around to it, shame on you! Go now! No, finish reading, then GO!
Because when you see what I got there for $14.99, you are going to cry--and I got the only one! Here it is:

Isn't that the most beautiful Buddha head you have ever seen??! Of course it is! It has that crackly finish, the multiple layers of glaze, even some wear...it looks like it's about 500 years old! Yes, I am in love with my Buddha head!
You can also see the lantern next to it from Pier 1, and a strand of Tibetan flags that I got in the mail long ago (free!). All together, the mantel looks like this:

I love it, I lurv it, and the bright lightness of it is helping me to forget about the dark, cold days outside. Well, that and a hefty glass of wine! ; )

Best Laid Plans

..of mice and women bloggers! So, I had all intentions of posting some great ideas for keeping your slim and trim figure over the holidays, and look how far I got! One idea! Sweet potatoes! Sweet!
The holidays were like a freight train on iced rails, barely slowing down enough for me to get a good look at them! (OK, so New Years hasn't arrived yet, but I know how it's going to be...a blur!)
Over the break I did discover a new blog that I am very excited about. It's called The Pioneer Woman (www.thepioneerwoman.com), and it is so incredibly inspiring to me! She's living the country life that I sometimes dream about having but probably never will (total city girl at heart!), she is an amazing photographer, and she's really funny. Especially her blog posts about adventures in the kitchen and with her "Marlboro Man"-- husband and father of their 4 kids. Anyway, check it out; I think you will be inspired, too! Hmmm...New Year's Resolution....set up a chicken coop in the back yard???? You never know, this city girl might have a little country in her after all!

Healthy Holidays!

Part of an attempted series of posts highlighting yummy holiday food that won't make you fat.

Today, it's sweet potatoes. Now, if you want the fat-making version, load a bunch of brown sugar, butter and maybe even some marshmallows onto your sweet potatoes. Congratulations, you've just turned one of the healthiest foods on the planet into junk food!
I have to say, I don't understand adding sugar to sweet potatoes. It's like adding sugar to sugar. Sweet potatoes have LOTS of flavor and sweetness already; you just have to bring it out. I find the best way is to roast them. Roasting brings out the sugars and caramelizes them and they taste amazing! Just dice them into 1" cubes, toss in a little olive oil and salt and pepper, put in the oven at 375 degrees for about 20 minutes, and you're done! VERY delish and loaded with vitamins!! Healthy food status remains intact!

Give Thanks

It's nearly Thanksgiving and I'm counting the days. I love the smells of the turkey slowly roasting in the oven, the spices of the pumpkin, the baked bread smell of the stuffing...I love watching the Macy's parade in the morning, as cheesy as it is...I love having a day that's just about being together. It's kind of surprising to me that I love Thanksgiving so much, considering I don't really like turkey or pumpkin pie, I don't care about the football game (especially not this year, Vikings!), and I know too much about the true history of the first Thanksgiving to feel very warm and fuzzy about the origins of this holiday.
But still, I find a way to appreciate the parts of it that I love, and I guess that's really what the message of Thanksgiving is. We find something in our lives to appreciate and be thankful for, and for one day (or hopefully more), that's what we choose to focus on. Forget the checking account balance, the weather, the project at work, or the funny noise your car just started to make. Forget all that, and be thankful. Thankful that you have more food than you could possibly eat, thankful that you have loved ones to share it with, thankful that the car making funny noises will-probably- get you home safely, and thankful that you have a home to return to. With a cat in it who is very happy to see you and your leftover turkey!

It's the Great Pumpkin!

I wish I could take credit for this one, because it is brilliant! This photo is of my son this morning, with his gift from the Great Pumpkin. Let me tell you all about it...

I was at my "book" club (loosely termed because we rarely actually read a book!) last week and we were all lamenting the vast amounts of candy that our kids still had stashed away from Halloween. How to get rid of it? Throw it out while they're at school? (Seems dishonest.) Donate it? (That one always sounded to me like passing along my problem to someone else.) Then someone piped up, "Well, haven't you heard of the Great Pumpkin?" We all agreed we'd heard of it from the Charlie Brown cartoon, but so what? How does that help us get rid of gobs of candy? So she told us that the Great Pumpkin comes in the night, like Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny-- they all hang out together and share the same MO-- but in order to get something from the Great Pumpkin, you have to give him all of your Halloween candy! In exchange, he leaves you a small gift. I love it!!!!

So, I proposed this to my son, and he was all over it immediately, like I knew he would be. He likes candy, but he likes toys much better. So, what to give for the gift? I think the best way to do this is to buy something that you had already planned to give for Christmas. That way, you're not spending more money on yet another toy. My son had asked for this Lego Advent Calendar a few weeks ago, and I was planning to get it for him as an early Christmas gift, so it fit the bill perfectly. We let him open Door #1 this morning, so he would have something to play with, and you can see the little snowman there in front of the box. So, we have the advent calendar and NO candy!!! It's a beautiful thing!

Candy Train to Easter

I once heard someone say that Halloween is the first car of the candy train to Easter. For those of us who are following a healthy lifestyle and slimming down, this can sound terrifying. I imagine a big, bloated back train huffing out gobs of candy from its smoke stack (this is an old train!) and me gaining 5 pounds as each car goes by. Yikers!

So, I'm making a plan. I'm preparing myself and my family for the sugar rush that is the holidays and trying to think up ways to have fun, participate in all of it, yet not hate myself in the morning.
Since opting out is not an option, I'll tell you how I'm planning to enjoy the ride.

First of all, I'm going to keep temptation to a minimum. With Halloween, I didn't buy my favorite candy to had out to the kids. Too hard not to need to "sample" it. And test it. And make sure there's no razors in it. Aaaaand maybe just one more sample. Yeah.

Once the trick or treaters were done for the night, I got rid of all the leftover candy. I packed it up and told my husband to take it to work the next day. I could have taken it to my office, but I didn't even want it that close to me! So, off it went to wreak havoc on someone else's hips.

Now, we just have the 10-lb. bag of candy that my son collected to deal with. For some reason, I'm not tempted by it. I had a few pieces on Halloween, and that's it. I let him have a piece in his lunch, a piece when he gets home from school along with something healthy, and a piece after dinner. Once the candy is a few weeks old, we'll either throw what's left away or take it to Lifetime Fitness. I hear they have a box where you can donate your leftover candy and they will send it to the troops overseas.

As for the run-up to Christmas, as much as I love the smell of baking cookies, I'm just not going to go there this year. It's not worth it. I know I'll get plenty of treat temptation other places; I don't need to have it in my own kitchen.

This battle of the bulge is really aptly named. Sometimes it does feel like a war. It's amazing how much junk there is out there that can derail a perfectly good diet. Instead of the candy train, I'm taking the healthy eating and exercising train. It's not glamorous, but damn it will feel good to go bathing suit shopping come Spring!