Hidden Ingredients

I am one of those folks that always reads ingredients on food labels. I pride myself on trying to use the best ingredients when I cook. I try to avoid excessive sodium, trans fats, sugars and such.

My hubby has been craving macaroni and tomatoes, like he had when he was a youngster. It's such a simple dish, you cook the macaroni and then drain and add it to a skillet that has a large can of tomatoes that have been simmering while you cook the pasta. I chose a can of Del Monte Diced Tomatoes seasoned with basil, garlic and onion. It was yummy, almost to the point of being delightful. We loved it.

When rinsing the can to put it in with the recyclables, it struck me that I hadn't read the label on the tomatoes. Why should I, it's just tomatoes and seasoning, right? Wrong. I was stunned when I read that the third ingredient was high fructose corn syrup. I still don't know why it was there, but it's a lesson learned. Check the ingredients, even if you KNOW there can't be anything bad in it. The next time I will make sure to check that label.

Don't know if I had mentioned that I have been almost incapacitated by what I thought was tennis elbow for a week or more and nothing I did brought any relief. Well, I woke up yesterday feeling so yucky that I could not stay out of bed. Nausea and stomach yuckies and other muscle aches when I was up. Today I feel back to normal today, no tennis elbow and the stomach is ok.

I had forgotten that whenever I am fighting off a cold or something of that nature that my arms and legs hurt. I am so seldom sick, that I don't even recognize the symptoms. I was almost ready to head to the hospital since we know that heart attacks in women, have unusual symptoms. Well, I'm ok now and ready to face the world.

I do have to say that I even feel lighter now and am going to watch what I eat. I had gotten a bit complacent and maybe that's why I got sick. My immunity levels must have dropped. You are what you eat, after all.

That's it from me for today. Remember watch what you eat and if you do get a "bug" take care of yourself.

How are you to know?

Since I'll be going on vacation next month, I have been trying to re-introduce some "hard-to-avoid" foods back into my diet. I was concerned that if I didn't, I would spend my vacation not feeling very well. Two of those hard to avoid foods are refined sugar and flour. Since I tried to to add things back, my elbow has started to hurt, my knees hurt and my thumb hurts. Is it because of my diet? Is it my body fighting off a cold? Is it too much time staying in one position while I sew, crochet or read? I really don't know.

I am looking forward to my vacation more this year than usual and hopefully next month I will have lots of pictures that I will post on my other blog and I'm hoping lots of healthy recipes that I'm going to be using when I come back. I know that vacation is still a month away, but I'm getting a bit excited already.

Back to the subject at hand, have you been experiencing any unusual body aches or mystery pains? I don't usually believe in "old age" aches and pains. Should I? What do you think?

Does this count?

I was all pumped up to work out yesterday. Got on the treadmill for about 12 minutes and the phone rang. Since my husband was out running errands, I thought it might be him with a question, so I stopped and answered the telephone. It was the car insurance folks responding to an inquiry we had, so I had to take some notes, etc. Finally got back on the treadmill for 10 more minutes when the hubby comes in with, of all things, chicken biscuits from BoJangles. I turned everything off and instead of working out, I worked on that biscuit. After having a heart to heart with the hubby about junk food I went on with the day. Never finishing the treadmill workout.

Question, is walking in increments of 10 or 15 minutes several times a day, really as effective as staying at it for the entire 40 minutes?

What have you experienced?

Six weeks until vacation

Yes, I know...most folks take vacation in the summer. Not us. My sisters live in San Diego and they always give us a trip out to see them and to do fun stuff. We usually stay in a hidden resort where it is very quiet and we go to the spa and take it really easy for a few days. This time we are staying at a resort on Mission Bay and will be within walking distance (sort of) of lots more stuff. So this means I've got six weeks to build up my endurance so I can keep up with my hubby. He doesn't like to dawdle.

I just got off the tread mill. I did 1.25 miles in 35 minutes. I started slow for about 10 minutes and them did 10 minutes on 2.5 and 2.7 MPH (which is about as fast as I can handle at this point) and then raised my incline to 3 for 5 minutes. I brought it back down to 1 on the incline and stayed at 2.5 until the last 5 minutes where I did a cool down at 2.0 down to 1.0 and stopping.

I had already eaten way too much today. I went clothes shopping and had to have a snack on the way. Dr. Pepper and .99 bag of Utz party mix. My favorite treat. Then swung by KFC and got popcorn chicken and fries which I dipped in ranch dressing. I said I had eaten too much.

So my trip shopping is done and I can concentrate on eating right and walking on the treadmill and making sure all my tops have matching necklaces and earrings. You probably know how I am about my adornments.

So want to join me in my six week training session? Maybe motivate me by your success? I am awful at losing weight. I have been in XL tops and size 16 bottoms for so long (and I'm just barely 5'4"). I really think I can see some changes in six weeks if I stick with it.

So that's it for today. Oh, another thing...my husband is going to D.C. this weekend with a group of folks, so I am going to stay at home and keep my telly and radio off and have a weekend of silence. I will only talk to him when he calls to check in. I suppose you might say it's a mini vow of silence. Drinking lots of water, bible reading and reflection are on the schedule. I plan to be rested and refreshed when he returns Saturday night. Feel free to join me in this little plan, also.

Take care.

My Friend Sandy

Not much news today, just wanted to mention this...

My friend Sandy is the most wonderful artist. She does things like art pillows, art clocks and even sculptures. Please check her out, you will be so amazed at her talent. She has an Etsy account if you are interested in purchasing her art. If you aren't into Etsy, she might even sell directly to you from her blog. At any rate, check out her stuff on her Flickr site.