Apparently, MM is very observant. She’s pointed out my one (and only!) flaw It’s really caused me to pay attention and realize that I do have this bad habit - I chew on my shirt when I’m reading or thinking. She’s taken to admonishing me whenever she catches me! I’ve got to try and stop that…
I only watched the last few minutes of American Idol last night just to see who won (woo hoo!! Go David Cook!!), so I missed the most priceless moment of the show - Gladys Knight and her “Pips” performing Midnight Train to Georgia. For those of you who have not yet had the pleasure, sit back and enjoy. But, please, no drinking while you watch…I don’t want to be blamed for you spitting your drink all over your computer!
P.S. I am considering calling off the nuptials to go be with my true love - Robert Downey, Jr.
When did I become “old”? As of late, little things have been making me feel like I’m no longer the kid in the room. Most noticably, the cute young thing sitting at the front desk as you walk into my office! She’s got the body, the style, the personality, the Pantene-hair, that I would kill for! Another sign (which actually came about 7 years ago) was when I was talking with some co-workers about my college days. I was telling some story about a night of partying and my friend looked at me and said “Frenchie! We never knew you liked to have fun…you’ve always been the serious ‘mommy’ type.” I thought I would die right there! Is that what turned me into the old woman — being a Mom?
I mean, does having someone call you Mom (long gone are the days when she proudly screamed “Mommy!!!” when she saw me….I’m still waiting for the progression to “Motherrrrr!!”) invoke some kind of frumpiness curse? I feel like it may be so! I turned to The Yummy Mummy Manifesto hoping to get some help.
This fresh dose of candor from Anna Johnson is different than my normal read. I rarely pick up anything in the self-help aisle of my favorite bookstores. Mainly, it’s out of fear - they usually involve changing in some way and that’s just too much work to have to go through to get what I want! This book, however, was recommended as a good read for the moms who want help in reclaiming their yummy selves!
Although the book was very entertaining and refreshing, I feel as if I am a bit beyond the advice of Ms. Johnson. About 2/3 of the book is devoted to the pregnancy and infancy. The remainder of the book gets you going in the toddler years. My darling MM is in double-digit years now, so I made it through the days of doubting my “natural instincts” and the terrifying moments when I would hear that blood-curdling scream when I told my angelic child that “No, I’m not buying you a 500th Barbie doll today, maybe another time….”
However, were this book given to me 7-10 years ago, it would have been perfect for me! Still, the book did help put me on the path to becoming a Yummy Mummy. It’s especially important as my daughter is getting to the stage where what I wear can (read: will) cause her embarrassment.
Someone asked this question today and forwarded me this great website. You can upload a picture of yourself (or anyone for that matter) and it gives you celebrities that you match. They rank the percentage by which you match. You can do different pictures and come up with different results, but it’s still pretty close. I have tried a few different pictures of myself and get about 10 results each time with three or four of them consistently showing up on all of the lists. But still, some of the results are a little questionable - I have two friends are both fair-skinned and blonde with similar features; one was said to look like Fred Savage and another was said to look like Sylvester Stallone.
On the other hand, I keep getting Gabrielle Union as my look-a-like. My niece, who I always thought resembled Mariah Carey (pre-crazy) was matched 97% to Adriana Karembeu. It went so far as to even recognize that MM and I are twins because she also looks like Gabrielle Union.
I’m telling you, this is a great time waster and can provide hours of mindless entertainment! Especially with some of the funnier results….
I just put in a photo of EP. Apparently, he is the long lost twin of Saddam Hussein!
Since we’re planning our wedding, we’re also planning a honeymoon. It seems everybody and their brother wants to honeymoon in the Caribbean, but EP and I have our hearts set on Europe. We both are excited about touring all the historical sites that are found everywhere. The hardest part is deciding where in Europe we want to go.
I think both of us agree that we’d enjoy visiting Rome. EP has a degree in history, and this would be the ideal place to take advantage of that and have my own private tourguide! There’s also the issue of trying to figure out where to stay once we there. But, you all know how much I adore the Internet for things like that. Still, we have to narrow it down to figure out if we want to find a hotel in Rome or maybe stay outside of Rome and travel into the city if that will help save money.
EP is also pushing to go to Amsterdam. We watched a Travel Channel special a while back about the city and he’s hooked. It turns out there is more to the place than what it’s (in)famous for! Whoda thunk it? Personally, I would like to go to Barcelona, Spain. We could even save money by staying in an apartment which has a kitchen. I know most people “pooh-pooh” the idea of cooking on vacation, particularly a honeymoon, but if you’d ever tasted EP’s cooking, you’d think twice! We’d still have the luxury of being able to dine out for dinners, but we could just whip up breakfasts or have snacks for those days when we chose to enjoy time indoors (it is our honeymoon after all!!).
Of course, lurking in the back of my mind is London…I know, I’ve been there plenty enough, but EP has never been. I can never get enough of the place! I have always stayed in pretty centrally located hotels in the past but, the pro of including London on the honeymoon itinerary is that we could be a bit more adventurous and maybe find a hotel somewhere else in London. It’s such a huge city, there’s so much to choose from.
Oy, it’s a good thing I have 11 months to decide!!!
Yesterday, we didn’t go grocery shopping until the evening, so I did have chicken salad for lunch, but after that, I have made an effort to keep meat out of my dieat. Now, since I don’t have anything morally against eating meat, I am not cutting out eggs. I just am hoping that cutting out the meat will do things for my diet that will help me get in better shape.
My first step was making protein balls for snacking. I love those things! The recipe that I found was a no-bake recipe:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup chocolate protein powder
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup oat bran
DIRECTIONS
In mixing bowl, combine all ingredients thoroughly. Roll 1 tablespoon of dough each into a walnut size balls and place on waxed paper. You can roll ithe balls in extra protein powder, cocoa powder, or powdered sugar to make less sticky on the outside. You can also add raisins, mini chocolate chips or M & M’s, shredded coconut, chopped nuts, etc into the dough.
Makes approximately 36 round balls
Nutritional Info
Servings Per Recipe: 36
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 61.9
Total Fat: 3.7 g
Cholesterol: 4.8 mg
Sodium: 33.1 mg
Total Carbs: 4.8 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.6 g
Protein: 1.8 g
So far, I think EP has eaten more of them than I have, but they turned out good. The protein powder was what hurt the most! It was $23 for a big bottle. UGH!!!
For dinner, I made a veggie pizza with bell peppers and mushrooms. And, for breakfast this morning, I made pancakes and eggs. So far, so good!
My friend had told me a while back about making ice cream without a churn. Her daughter made it (at school, I think) just using ziplock bags and ice. This morning, on the Food Network, one of the hosts made no-churn ice cream and it reminded me of the ziplock bag method. I looked it up and found this recipe:
What you’ll need:
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup milk or half & half
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
6 tablespoons rock salt
1 pint-size Ziploc plastic bag
1 gallon-size Ziploc plastic bag
Ice cubes
How to make it:
Fill the large bag half full of ice, and add the rock salt. Seal the bag.
Put milk, vanilla, and sugar into the small bag, and seal it.
Place the small bag inside the large one and seal again carefully.
Shake until mixture is ice cream, about 5 minutes.
Wipe off top of small bag, then open carefully and enjoy!
So, off to the store I went. I guess I was in a Betty Crocker mood today because I was making a lot of stuff - homemade pizza, chocolate chip cookies, protein balls (remember, going vegetarian…), and now ice cream. We made it after dinner and it turned out great! It was actually very good! I think we’re going to try it at our Girl Scout meeting Tuesday. Go ahead…try it!
Several years back, I was very overweight. I’m a very short woman - just 4′11″. At my last checkup before having MM, I tipped the scales at 191 pounds! YIKES! I always joke that I was nature’s example of a perfect sphere. LOL When I was pregnant with MM, I was a receptionist and admin at a collection agency. I sat up front, all by myself and didn’t have much to do once morning reports were run, so I ate. I had a set routine; I would stop at McDonald’s and get a sausage biscuit with cheese meal. I drank soda with my breakfast. If I didn’t go to McD’s (and sometimes, even if I did go) I’d have a pack of those mini-doughnuts. I drank soda with my breakfast (noticing a pattern yet??). So, it’s easy to see how I ballooned up. I’m not saying I was all that skinny before, but seriously, I wasn’t helping things!
The Spring after MM was born, I had gotten down to about 173 pounds, but almost all of that was what I lost immediately following MM’s birth. I decided to do something about it and joined Weight Watchers. Over the next year or so, I dropped about 50 pounds. I amazed myself at how healthy my eating habits became. One of the things I did was cut beef and pork out of my diet. And, even though I still ate chicken and fish, I began to load up on the veggies. That diet had me feeling wonderful! I went over 2 years without eating any beef or pork. I satisfied my burger cravings with Boca products, and even substituted some of their products for chicken as well.
A couple of years ago, I began eating beef and pork again and my diet slowly became not so great. I have gained about 15 pounds back and have remained there. I can’t seem to find the motivation (or time) to go back to my healthy lifestlye. But, hopefully, that will change.
I think I am going to have to kickstart myself with a little shock to my system, and I think I’m going to try going completely vegetarian. I can easily do the all vegetables part of it, but I know it’s more than just that. I need to start researching alternatives to replace those vitamins and nutrients that I won’t get any longer without any meat in my diet. I can’t live on protein balls and vegetables alone!! (Although I do love protein balls..) If any of you have some yummy, yet not too complicated, tips for me, pleaase share!
Actually, that’s where my mind went when I got an e-mail from Spirit Airlines that was titled “Return of the MILF Sale”
Seriously, someone actually approved this marketing campaign?? And since it’s the “return” this is not the first time they ran this campaign. Personally, I think it’s hilarious, but still a head shaker!
It’s really caused me to pay attention and realize that I do have this bad habit - I chew on my shirt when I’m reading or thinking. She’s taken to admonishing me whenever she catches me! I’ve got to try and stop that…
When did I become “old”? As of late, little things have been making me feel like I’m no longer the kid in the room. Most noticably, the cute young thing sitting at the front desk as you walk into my office! She’s got the body, the style, the personality, the Pantene-hair, that I would kill for! Another sign (which actually came about 7 years ago) was when I was talking with some co-workers about my college days. I was telling some story about a night of partying and my friend looked at me and said “Frenchie! We never knew you liked to have fun…you’ve always been the serious ‘mommy’ type.” I thought I would die right there! Is that what turned me into the old woman — being a Mom?
EP has a degree in history, and this would be the ideal place to take advantage of that and have my own private tourguide! There’s also the issue of trying to figure out where to stay once we there. But, you all know how much I adore the Internet for things like that. Still, we have to narrow it down to figure out if we want to find a 
save money by staying in an 
