photo credit: Right About Me

Today is an International Women’s Day. It is an occasion marked by women’s groups around the world. This date is also commemorated at the United Nations and is designated in many countries as a national holiday.

This is a very special day for women who are treated with dignity, love and appreciation, but hardly carries the same value for numerous women, mostly in underdeveloped counties, who struggle to survive.

When I came across this article about a very intelligent, enthusiastic, and driven to make a difference, young lady, Rebecca Kousky, I just had to spread the word.

Hopefully I will be able to reach many others who will do the same to help Rebecca continue her mission, and reach out to the less fortunate women around the world, to help them find opportunity, happiness, freedom, and independence.

Here is a short introductory for you about Rebecca Kousky and her invaluable mission, taken from her post:

“When–after graduating with a masters in Social Work from Washington University–I had the inspiration of starting up a nonprofit organization that would provide microfinance loans to women in developing countries so they could begin or maintain art- or craft- based businesses”…

to continue with this story, please visit her site.

Women worldwide are connected through arts and crafts, which creates opportunities for them to start their own businesses and improve their own living standards, as well as the lives of other women who assist them.

If you have been searching to purchase something very special, and unique, please check out the links below, as this is your place.

Not only will you find so many beautiful items made with precision and love, you will alsomake a difference and improve the lives of many struggling women around the world.  What a beautiful thing to do on International Women’s Day.

Special Sale – (check out ALL their departments…such cute stuff for children…)

Shop Designers – (look for store locations near you)

Gift Certificate – (Best thing for someone hard to shop for)

If you do not wish to shop, but would like to help out, you may make a donation to a very good cause:

Get involved in supporting women in developing counties:

HAPPY  INTERNATIONAL  WOMEN’S  DAY!!!!!

photo credit: joannapoe

Super job!!!!

We are about to complete the Construction Phase of The Fat Smash Diet.

Time to compare notes with our conscience, and pat ourselves on the back for doing a great job, eating healthy and keeping in motion, and most of all feeling so much better.

We have been doing so well with all the fruits and vegetables, and controlled food portions, so in this phase it is time for some rewards.  Enjoy some of the SWEETS we have been avoiding.  However, we still need to keep in mind the portion size.  Instead of eating 5 cookies we should allow ourselves only 2-3.

Also, those of you who missed their alcohol, check out the selection below….surprise….you can now enjoy a glass of wine, or a beer, or a mixed drink.  Watch the volume!

Now that we trained our body to require smaller portions of food, but receive it more often (4-5 times per day), there is no need to go for the super-sized portions, seconds, or fill our plate to the rim.  Now we need to keep up with everything we learned and discipline ourselves not to fall back into the trap of bad eating habits.

If for any reason, you had some weak moments, and stopped following the plan, thus gained some weight back, do not panic, it can be fixed.

All you have to do to get back on track, is to go back to Phase I until you have lost the weight you gained back, then go an extra day on Phase I, then go back to Phase III.  Can’t get any easier!

In this phase, Dr. Smith is suggesting to dedicate one day per week to foods from Phase II, just to shake your body from its comfortable routine, which may also contribute to a greater weight loss.  He also suggests to do a “two-a-day” routine, which means double your daily exercise routine, one in the morning and one in the evening, to burn more calories.

In case some of you still did not decide to buy the book, I am providing you with a new list of foods for this phase.  Just remember that all the foods from previous phases are staying, and we are adding new ones.  That is the whole beauty of this Fat Smashing Diet.

Here are the additional selections of daily servings:

MEATS:
(portions are 5 oz, which is equivalent to a deck and a half of playing cards.  All these meats and fish are baked or broiled, NOT FRIED)

• Chicken without the skin
• Turkey  without skin
• Ground Beef:  EXTRA lean or ground sirloin
• Sirloin steak
• Lamb
• Turkey Sausage – 1 link
• Turkey Bacon – 2 slices
• Regular Bacon – 1 slice

SEAFOOD:

• Halibut, Tuna, Salmon, Snapper, Striped Bass, etc. – 3 oz. servings
• Shrimp – 4 large
• Mussels – 3 oz
• Oysters – 6-12
• Clams – 3

EGGS:

• 4 egg whites or
• 2 whole egg- scrambled, boiled, or poached

MILK and CHEESE:

• 3 cups of low-fat, skim, or soy milk
• 2 oz. of cheese (2 slices)

PASTA and BREAD:

• Whole wheat pasta – 1 cup
• Whole wheat/whole grain/pumpernickel bread – 4 thin slices
• Whole wheat/multi-grain English muffins – 1

DESSERTS:

(one dessert per day.  Cookies at the silver dollar size)

• Chocolate chip cookies – 3
• Gingersnaps – 4
• Oatmeal raisin cookies – 2
• Peanut butter cookies – 2
• Whole graham crackers – 2
• Low-fat ice cream – 1 scoop
  

AlCOHOL

(one choice of one serving per day )

• Wine – 6 oz
• Beer – 12 oz
• Mixed drink – 4 oz

SNACKS:

• Small brownie – 1
• Licorice – 1/2 of small pack
• Sherbet – 1/2 cup
• Chocolate Pudding, sugar-free, made with low-fat milk – 1/2 cup, plus 2 Tbs whipped topping
• Melba toast – 4 slices

EXCLUDED FOODS:

• White rice
• White Potatoes
• WhiteBread/English muffins
• White pasta
• White flour
• Pasties, donuts, Danish
• Cake
• Regular Soda
• Milkshakes
• Frappucinos or cappuccinos
• Cafe latte

photo credit: Ashutosh Khandha

There are

two

excellent theories

for

arguing

with women.

Neither one works.

photo credit: sweetonveg

The Great Lent began about two weeks ago, which means that those who follow this tradition, abstain from eating meat at least on Friday of every week, or some even do it on Wednesdays as well.

If you are like me, and are used to having meat at least once or twice per day, preparing meatless meals a couple of times per week might create a challenge.  I used to really stress out about this during my early years of cooking, but after a while I built quite a long list of meatless meal choices, and could easily be a vegetarian, if I could only win my family over to that eating style.

I have been posting some of my  meatless recipes during this past year, so if you are searching for ideas, here are the links to these posts:

Palushky (Potato Dumplings)

Halushky (Pasta with cabbage)

Vegetarian Holubtsi (Cabbage Rolls)

Varenyky (Pierogies)

Homemade Pasta (in the lower section of the linked post)

Crepes

Tuna Melts

Veggie Burgers

Tomato Soup

Red Beet Soup

Sorrel Borsch

If you are interested in a rather quick meal, there is always Macaroni and Cheese (you can add in some steamed broccoli, or any other of your favorite vegetables), Tuna Fish Salad, Egg Salad, Shrimp Scampi, any other fish which may be fried or broiled, pasta with steamed veggies, pasta with tomato sauce, pizza, PBJ, etc.

With so many different choices, the few meatless days during the 40 days of lent, pass by so quickly, that before you know it, you are back to the old meat cooking routine.

Sometimes  I actually miss a meatless meal, so I whip one up for a change, just to add a new twist to my meal planning.

As always, please share your favorite meatless meal idea with all of us.

photo credit: biffyboy

If you have been using Gmail as your email provider, like I do, you already experienced Google Buzz.

It sure was a surprise to me, when one day I noticed an unfamiliar icon named “Buzz” in my inbox.  I also noticed that there was a list of all my contacts who communicate with me through Gmail.  In addition to that, I found out that all the comments I leave on other blogs via Google Reader,  were also posted in the Buzz section, and visible to all my contacts.

This whole experience made me very uncomfortable, so I asked my son about it, searched the net for more information, and also came across a great article about Google Buzz , by Melanie Nelson, which provides further clarification about Google Buzz, and will share it with you, so please check it out if you are still searching for answers.

I also found an article which explains the three things everyone should know before they use or continue to use Google Buzz, so here is the list, but check out the post for more details:

1. The people you follow and who follow you back is made public by default.
2. You can expose private email addresses to everyone who follows you without meaning to do so.
3. Your Most Frequent Contacts In Google Buzz Have Access To Your Reader Contents By Default.

So those of you who have not heard of Google Buzz, you probably are curious to know what it is.

Here is Melanie’s description of Google Buzz:

“Over past few months Google has been trying to secure their spot not just as the go-to search engine, but as a real player in social media. Google Wave and the Google Nexus One phone were cool options to the norm and just last week Google unveiled yet another new social media tool: Google Buzz. Buzz is one more way to share your thoughts, pictures, favorite articles, etc. with your friends. Unlike Wave and Nexus One, Buzz has not been well-received for one reason: privacy.”

The most annoying thing about Google Buzz is the privacy issue.  I feel that Google should have given everyone the option of accepting or rejecting their offer of this new social media.  I definitely do not care for having it rolled into my email, so I was searching for a way to turn it off, to get rid of it, however the turn off button does not help much.

If you are in the same predicament, here is some help to check out for details, but I will just post the headings of the steps to disable your Buzz, to give you some idea of what it takes:

• Step 0: Don’t disable Buzz–yet
• Step 1: Purge your profile
• Step 2: Block your followers
• Step 3: Disable Buzz in Gmail

Hopefully you found my research helpful, and will be able to make a decision about keeping, or ditching, Google Buzz.

photo credit: FreeRangeLife

Mornings could be a very hectic time in any household, especially if everyone is on a very tight schedule, and in a hurry to get ready as fast as possible, and to move on.

It is even worse if you are not a morning person, and you have to drag yourself out of bed, even after the alarm goes off, and the snooze button is hit few more times (this is not a good idea).

Here are some of my suggestions to make the best of your busy morning, but it requires good planning the night before:

• Prepare a list of things to do in the morning, and follow it for a while until the routine is somewhat mastered by everyone  (This will work for  any household; singles,  married, families, or even retired couples)

• Keep the list  posted on the fridge, or any area in the house, where it can easily be viewed by everyone

• Delegating daily tasks, and engaging the whole family, is  another great idea to get tasks accomplished as a team

• Get as much accomplished as possible the night before (well began, half done…there is a lot of truth to that expression)

• Empty your dishwasher

• Fill it up with dirty dishes sitting around (much more pleasant to be greeted in the morning by an organized kitchen)

• Prepare the next day’s lunch bags, by at least putting in the drinks, snacks, and napkins

• You can even make the PBJ sandwiches, but spread both pieces of bread with PB then put the jelly in between the two, to prevent the bread from getting soggy

• Making a meat sandwich, place the meat on each piece of bread, then put the mayo or mustard between the meat, also to prevent the bread from getting soggy

• Check the weather forecast for the next day, and make sure everyone lays out their clothes out before going to bed  (this really cuts down on the morning confusion, not to mention the numerous outfits ending up on the floor)

• If you are sending off a child to daycare, pack their diaper bag and fill their bottle (store the drink it in the fridge of course),  and leave a reminder on your diaper bag to take the bottle

• Supervise your school age children to pack their school bags, special projects, instruments, sports equipment, before going to bed

• Replenish the water for your pet

• Schedule your children bedtime at least an hour or more before your own, to free up some time for yourself

• Insist that everyone places their dirty clothing in the laundry basket, not on the floor, after changing into their pajamas

• Everyone should have their own alarm clock set up with a wake up time. Best way is to get up as soon as the alarm goes off, rather than dragging it out and hitting the snooze button, as this may cause you to fall asleep again (you should try to get at least 6-7 hours of sleep, and 8 – 12 hours for children)

• Wake up time should be moved up, for days with inclement weather, which required earlier departure time, to allow for slower driving and traffic

• Don’t skip breakfast! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, as it provides your body with needed nutrition to start the day, even if it is only a piece of fruit and a glass of juice, it is better than not eating at all

Also, just like breakfast gives you the energy to start your day, organized morning contributes to an overall better day.  Speaking of a better day, check out these suggestions on how to free up some of your time during the day.

I know, this looks like a lot to accomplish the night before, but these tasks require only few minutes each to complete.  But the key factor is the planning, organizing, and  delegating, which requires to select one person to be in charge of this.   You will be surprised how smoothly this whole process will proceed, and I assure you that there still will be free time for family fun, and less grumpiness in the morning.

I can speak from my own experience, as a morning person, if I don’t complete most of my unfinished tasks the night before, and especially select my next day attire, my morning is very unproductive, time flies by, and I end up leaving the house with breakfast on the go in one hand, and the car keys in the other, and no prepacked lunch.  Not to mention the mess I made of my closet, before I decided on the outfit for the day.

I am sure that many of you have lots of wonderful ideas of your own, and we all would love to hear about them, so please share and leave comments.

photo credit: berrimbillah

We are familiar with the expression that “Diamonds are woman’s best friend”, but I think roses also fall in the same category.

If you are thinking of buying roses, Red seems to be the most popular color for Valentine’s Day, however for other occasions you may want to select a different color.

I would like to expand your horizons about the different colors of roses and their symbolism.  So next time you are shopping for these beauties, you might want to think twice about the color you want to purchase.

Then again, you can always select a bouquet of mixed colors, which is just as beautiful.

Red rose is the traditional symbol of love and romance.

Pink rose is a symbol of grace and elegance, admiration and appreciation.

Yellow rose is a symbol of warmth and happiness, joy and friendship.

White rose is a symbol of innocence, purity, honor, reverence, marriage and new beginning.

Orange rose is a symbol of passion, desire, enthusiasm, fervent romance, excitement.

Lavender rose is a symbol of enchantment, and feelings of love at first sight.

I hope you don’t worry too much about the color, since women love roses, period!

If you know that the special person in your life loves certain colors, then it does not matter what symbolic meaning has been assigned to these colors, just go ahead and go for her favorite color.

HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY!!!!

Congratulations!

We successfully completed the Detox  Phase of the Fat Smash Diet.

Didn’t the 9 days just fly by?  Aren’t you feeling better already?  I sure am; it feels great!

Phase Two is much easier than Phase one, in regards to food selection.  Even though we still continue with all the foods from Phase One, we are making new additions.  This phase lets us get back to many of the foods we were missing during the past nine days.  It still is very important to eat 4-5 smaller meals per day, and healthful snacks in between.

We must remember NOT to skip meals, and stick to the eating schedule we have set up for ourselves in Phase One.  We must keep up the good work with physical activities, to keep on smashing the fat, and building good habits.

Here are the additional selections of daily servings:

MEATS:
(portions are 3-4 oz, which is equivalent to a deck of playing cards.  All these meats and fish are baked or broiled, NOT FRIED)

• Chicken without the skin
• Turkey  without skin
• Ground Beef:  EXTRA lean or ground sirloin
• Sirloin steak
• Lamb

SEAFOOD:

• Halibut, Tuna, Salmon, Snapper, Striped Bass, etc. – 3 oz. servings
• Shrimp – 4 large
• Mussels – 3 oz
• Oysters – 6-12
• Clams – 3

EGGS:

• 1 whole egg- scrambled, boiled, or poached

MILK and CHEESE:

• 2 1/2 cups of low-fat, skim, or soy milk
• 2 oz. of cheese (2 slices)
• ½ cup of cottage cheese

CEREALS:

• Any unsweetened cereals – 1 cup of cold, or ½ cup of hot
• Sweeteners:
• 4 tsp of granulated sugar (or sugar substitute)
• 1 Tbsp honey

DRINKS:

• Coffee – 1 10oz cup, and 3 cups or herbal tea, and 5 cups of Club soda or 2 cans of diet soda, and 1 cup of iced tea (sweetened only with 2 packets of sugar substitute, or Lemonade made with real lemons and 2 packets of sugar substitute or 2 tsp of granulated sugar.
• Unlimited flavored seltzer or tonic water
• Unlimited tap of bottled water

SNACKS:

• 2 graham crackers and 2 tsp. low-sugar jelly
• 2 Tbsp raisins and 10 peanuts
• 2 gingersnaps and ½ oz cheddar cheese
• 2 small chocolate chip cookies
• 15-20 fat free Tortilla chips
• 4 animal crackers and 1 small orange
• 2 rice cakes topped with 1 tsp. peanut butter
• 1 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 8 halves dried apricots and ½ cup skim milk
• 6 saltines-type crackers with 2 tsp. low-sugar jelly

EXCLUDED FOODS:

• White rice
• White Potatoes
• Bread/English muffins
• White pasta or whole wheat pasta
• White flour
• Pasties, donuts, Danish, cakes,cookies, brownies,
• Candy
• Ice Cream
• Potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, popcorn
• Chocolate
• Bacon
• Sausage
• Alcohol
• Fried foods
• Fast Foods
• Regular Soda
• Sweetened juices from a bottle or can
• Milkshakes
• Frappuccino
• Café latte or cappuccino

TIP: Don’t forget to do some physical activity after dinner.  Also, remember your food portion size:  less is more!

Whenever you weigh yourself, do it in the morning just before stepping into the shower.  You will love your scale.

We thought that the worse snow storm of this season was over, but as the saying goes “Don’t count your chickens until all the eggs hatch”, so here we are again…..with a bigger snow storm than the one before.

Our area does not normally get a lot of snow during the whole winter season, but this year is exceptionally snowy.  We moved over 200 miles south of the snowy area we lived at before, but I guess the snow just keeps on following us.

In my last post I was cheering you on with signs of spring, but today I will share some signs of winter still in full swing.

Lucky us, we have about 24 inches of snow, and it’s still snowing, and the snow drifts are quite impressive as well.

For those of you who never experienced snow, enjoy these pictures, and those who have to shovel it, welcome to the club.

Nice thick blanket of snow is now covering the earlier signs of spring I shared with you the other day.

Not only it has been snowing now for 24 hours, the strong wind is creating some very interesting snow drifts, like this one.  You can see the grass in one section, and the bank is about 3 feet  high on the other end.  It looks like a crater.

The snow is full of moisture, thus very heavy.  Here is a path from our garage to the street.  By the time I post this picture for you, it will be covered again by the drifting snow.

Welcome to our igloo, or at least that is how our front entry looks like.

Finally it stopped snowing, the driveway is clear, with a huge pile of snow on both sides, waiting for the hot sun to melt it down.

A couple of weeks ago, on Saturday, we had a gorgeous day.  It was sunny, pleasantly warm, with the temperature  in the low 50ties, but what was so peculiar about it, is that it’s still the middle of winter.  Mother Nature reminded us of this reality during this past weekend.

As you know, I love nature and gardening, so I could not resist to go outside and check out how my garden is doing this time of the year.

I was very surprised, and quite confused, when I noticed some of my spring plants are already popping out of the ground.  It definitely is way too early for them to be peeking out, but then again, it’s the call of Mother Nature.

I enjoy sharing everyday events with all of you, so I grabbed my camera and took some pictures, just to give you some hope that even though you might not see signs of spring in your area, spring definitely is on its way.

These are my Daffodils peeking out of the ground.

Red Sedum is squeezing out from between the old shoots from last year.

Hyacinths are poking through, and a nearby tulip is trying to compete as well.

In case you are wondering why I have a Christmas Cactus at the top of this post….well wonder no more, since the poor thing is confused, and decided to bloom now, rather than for Christmas, as it’s expected blooming season.

There is a very nice story behind that cactus as well, so here it comes.

Few years back, I worked with a really nice bunch of ladies who also knew how much I loved plants and flowers, and I had a Christmas Cactus on my desk.  While I was going on vacation, instead of taking the plant home, they offered to take care of it for me, and they did a wonderful job.

When I came back to work (two weeks later), I noticed that my plant looked great, vibrant, full of life.  I was very grateful that they took such good care of my plant, but they both had this certain look on their face, that something was not right.

As honest as they were, all true friends should be, they informed me that this was a replacement plant, as they “killed” the original one, without knowing what really happened.  “It just died” – they exclaimed!  I did not mind.  It was just a plant, and plants do die.  No big deal.

We all laughed uncontrollably about it.  They felt so much better by telling me the truth, and I could not believe that they actually went to so much trouble finding another cactus for me, an out of season plant during that particular time of the year.

So, when the time came for me to move and leave the company, I took the cactus with me, and now every time I look at it (it is hanging in my kitchen window), I think of our friendship and reminisce about all the great times we spent together.

I hope you enjoyed the Christmas Cactus story, and the early signs of spring.