Whatever happened to common decency? I'm mean REEEEAAAHHHLY!

So...I left my house at 10:15p this evening to get this weeks grocery shopping done. You may ask..."Why on a Friday night are you going shopping?!?!?" Well, we have a pretty busy day tomorrow, and Sunday is Mother's Day. I REFUSE to grocery shop on Mother's Day. So, I prepared my list beforehand and off I went.

When I started the only "trouble" I had was maneuvering around the stockers and their stacks of stuff to restock the shelves. Nothing too troublesome. In fact, I remember thinking "This is pretty calm. No people. I can find what I need. Cool!" So here I am taking my sweet time, going through my list...getting this and that. Remembering we were almost out of eggs, and it wasn't on the list. Remembering that I wanted to color my hair. Yada, yada, yada.

Then it was time to checkout. I will say I am a VERY polite shopper. I patiently wait in line minding my own business, and busy myself on Facebook. Of course, there are only 4 lanes open, and each one has 4 or more people. I pick the one that is the shortest, and wait. My checker wasn't overly happy, nor was she rude. She was there, its 11:30p now, and she's probably tired. Whatever, no bother. I play on my phone some more.

It took about 20 minutes before it was my turn. I notice the person behind me only has 2 containers of salt, and I had a cart full, so I let him go ahead. He was very nice, and grateful that I let him through. I put up the divider, and start putting my stuff on the belt. Trying to keep the shelf items together, trying to keep the cold stuff together, cleaners together, produce together, freezer stuff together...all in an effort to make the checker's job easier. I then put another divider up for the person behind me so they can start putting their stuff on the belt. Like I said, polite shopper. At this point I hear some ladies in the lane next to me start to complain. I can't really make out what they were saying, but there was an anger of tone and hate that I didn't like at all. But...its midnight, and the "crazies" are out, so who am I to say anything. I push my cart up, lift the 18pk of Gatorade up for the checker, and mind my business. I do have a family to get back to safely.

I hear one of the two ladies say pretty loudly "Oh my GOD, we have GRANDMA for a checker, and have been in line for !#$%$^ ever!!!" No common decency for the people around them, the kids in my line, or the near 70 year old woman working at Wal-Mart at midnight checking out their 3 full carts of stuff!!!!! So, at this point I am distracted, and almost wanted to go help the poor woman. But a manager came over and "took over" and the sweet lady slipped in the back. I pay for my stuff, and roll my cart to my car, and load up the groceries.

By now, lots of "crazies" have shown up. My definition of a "crazy" is fairly loose. It's the pack of teens, the college drunkos, the families trying to rush to get stuff, etc. We have all been there at some point in our life. I am happy to be leaving, but can't get that lady out of my head. As I was putting my groceries up I noticed under my purse were those darn eggs. Eggs that I didn't pay for. At first I thought "Sweet, free eggs." But 2 seconds later I felt guilty, and returned my cart to the stall, and walked back in with my unpaid eggs. I see the greeter that just said goodbye to me, and he looks at me like "Why are you back?" So I explained that when I was putting my groceries in the car I realized these eggs were hiding underneath my purse and I didn't pay for them, and he goes "Wow, well....the lines are still pretty long..." and looks at me as if I should just walk right back to the car with my eggs. Let me add, he even motioned with his head for me to go back out the door. I told him "I just couldn't eat these eggs without feeling guilty. I'll wait."

I went back in line, 3-4 people deep, and the person checking out has a cart full, but they are paying. The second person in line has some soda and chips, and then the next person has a cart full, and is a family of 4. And...so i wait. Now...does the family even look to see if I have 1 item? No. And they don't even have any of their food on the COMPLETELY empty belt yet. And I wait. They waited for the 2 people in front of them to check out and pay before putting stuff on the belt. Now, its highly possible that I am irritated at this point and I am being super critical, but its MIDNIGHT I wanted to be HOME!

I check out. Take my eggs to the car, and think about the old lady all the way home. How hard must her life be that she is working at Wal-Mart at midnight on a Friday night? How hard must it be that when she is there, people are so rude to her? I just wanted to give her a hug, and learn more about her life. I find solace in knowing that I did all I could to be polite, and thankful, and appreciative of all the people who stock shelves, check people out, and make my life easier. Even my not-so-excited checker. I smiled, said thank you and moved on quickly. I mean how many places can you go where you can buy hair color, lawn fertilizer, toys, clothes, movies, and GROCERIES at midnight?!?!?! I guess the "price" you pay is having to deal with the crazies, and the rude people.

I urge you, my very small group of followers, to take a moment to look your checker in the eye and say "Thank you. Have a great evening."

We all have many, many things going on in our lives. Even more than what we can imagine. We all have stress in one way or another. Whether it be stress from work or from stuff going on at home. Or both. We owe it to everyone to have common decency. Maybe you don't go out of your way, but at least be nice and polite to the people around you. The way I was raised is easy. You use your manners. Say please and thank you, and realize that your actions affect others. I just don't know what happened or where it went haywire, but people are mean, rude and think their world revolves strictly around them. Am I perfect? Heck no! But I am stopping now to think about my actions.

Now, of course, I am not talking about YOU reading my blog. You're perfect ;). But the others you see, the people in the checkout lines. The people you see everyday, but then walk by you as if you don't exist. The people at the mall that bump into you and don't even look or apologize. The people on the highway that think they are the only person that has somewhere to be. The people in the car line at McD's where they are in the 2nd lane and CLEARLY were behind you, and then push their way forward fighting to be first. I mean REEEAAAAAAHHHLY, is your coffee THAT important? If you are late, why are you even in the drive-thru? The sales lady at clothing store that is just trying to make a sale because she has babies to feed. The car salesmen or the furniture stalkers that have quotas to meet so they can keep their job in this tough economy. The customer service person that you spoke with to fix your phone...OK wait...I have to draw the line there. I listen and critique people for a living on their customer service skills on a phone. I can't make an excuse for that. At least not at the moment. Not in a public forum where it can used against me in the future.

Basically, all my ranting is to hopefully get 1 person to stop for a second and think...yeah maybe THAT person has feelings. Maybe THAT person had a night where their baby was up crying all night. Maybe THAT person left their house this morning after a fight with their mother, brother, cousin, husband. Maybe that person has bigger issues than you, and might like a smile instead of a butt chewing. Common decency. Where did it go?

Contrary to the name of my blog...

I am restarting this journey called weight loss. It's an old friend that I have a love/hate relationship with. I LOVE how I feel when I am done working out. I hate how I feel leading up to the workout. The dread. Alas, the journey has started AGAIN.

I always like to try something new to keep myself motivated, to accomplish a goal or to make it fun. This week I started the Couch to 5k program. C25K, for short. What's a 5K? 3.1 miles. I can do that. I used to walk that. Now, I train to jog/run it. www.c25k.com. It's a 9 week running program.

Flashback: March 8. I started Week 1, Day 1 of the program. While doing the training I felt pretty good. Then at about the 20 min mark I couldn't hack it. I had to stop and catch my breath. But I finished. I was pretty sore the next day. I took a few days off, and that lead to a week. Then it was Spring Break...blah, blah, blah. Needless to say...12 days later...I started the program again. Do I see this as a failure? At first I did. UNTIL I restarted.

Back to reality. March 20th. Week 1, Day 1 (again). This time I turned on my new favorite TV show, Parenthood. I never watched it in regular prime-time, but I saw a commercial that looked interesting, and started watching a few shows. Then I was hooked.

Now here is where it gets fun. I have the TV on. The baby monitor on. The treadmill on, and my phone too. On my phone I downloaded a super easy app for the C25K program. It tells you exactly what to do, and when to do it. Bing. Warm-up, 5 minutes. Bing. Run for 60 seconds. Bing. Walk for 90 seconds. This repeats for 20 min. Bing. Cool Down, for 5 minutes. Total of 30 minutes.

While running I felt stronger than when I ran on the 8th. I didn't have to stop. I didn't have to catch my breath. Success! Now whether running on the 8th made any difference I don't know. But what I do know is I was better. I was stronger, and thus felt GREAT.

I ran again tonight. Week 1, Day 2. Another success. I felt better, and stronger again. I also got to watch that new show again. Which is a great distraction. I made sure to concentrate on my breath. Warm-up - easy peasy. First few runs, GREAT! The I started to feel some muscle fatigue towards the end, but nothing I couldn't overcome. I found myself staring at my feet at first. Watching every strong stride. Trying to stay motivated. When I got tired of looking at my feet and started to feel weak I looked straight ahead. I kept saying in my head "Hold your head up high. Be strong. You can do it." When that didn't work, I kept on trucking anyway. It's 60 seconds. Then...as the last attempt at staying motivated I pictured my skinny self. I pictured her running ahead of me. Trying to BEAT me. Then I would yell, in my head, "You can't win!" and chase her down. That's how I overcome the "tough" parts. I will catch that skinny girl one day, but for now, she is my internal competition.

Maybe I will use her as my coach when it comes to food too. That's where I struggle. I love food. I love to cook anything, bake anything, and I love to share it. I just need to find healthier alternatives and limit the sugary snacks that are OH SO GOOD! Give me a piece of cake, and I am as happy as can be. I'll pass on the crackers and the chips, but give me a brownie or a slice of cheesecake....yum. But I digress...food is my struggle. I did it once. I can and WILL do it again. Bring on the internal competition. Bring on my skinny self saying "No you don't need fries with that." Bring on me taking control of what I want, and not letting things control me.

Along with working out, I am watching my calories too. The last time I did this I started with Slim Fast. No thinking, no planning. Just stick the cans in a bag with yogurt and some fruit, and poof...easy portion control. I make my bag the night before, then its ready for work the next day. Now I don't really agree with the plan whole-heartedly. I think for me, limiting myself to 1260 cal (approx.) is not healthy for me at this size, right now. I am shooting for 1400 to 1500 calories. Which I still think is good, and very manageable and will allow me to reach my goal (more on that later). Once I feel that I have my portions under control, I will stop Slim-fast. Then work on real food, with real calories. This is just what's easy right now, and what works for me. I still will have 1 cheat meal. Then 1 cheat day.

OK, what's my goal? Well I am not really sure. My first goal is about a 25 lb weight loss. That will put me at approximately what I was before having Jocelyn. I think at a 2 lb weight loss per week is about 12 weeks, 4 mos, or roughly mid-to-late July. Then I will figure out my next mini-goal. Hopefully by then I will be in a routine. I prefer mini-goals. Sometimes if I think about the big picture, then I get a little freaked out. I can do it. I can do anything once I put my mind to it, right? Reach the mini-goal.

To-date: 0 lbs lost, 2 work outs in this week, so far. 2 days of OK eating (Monday and Tuesday). I did have some ice cream today. (I can hear the skinny girl whispering in my ear.) It's late, I need to pack my lunch and get to bed. Goodness....here we go. If you want, join me in my journey and tell me about yours!

Let the baby food making continue...

I have done well with this little project. I have steamed and pureed apples, butternut squash, pears and carrots. I think these were all pretty easy. I frozen them in an ice cube tray, and they are now sitting in the freezer. Each little portion ready to warm up in a few seconds, either under hot water, or in the microwave.

How does Jocelyn like it? She loved it! So far she has had the carrots, but she is an eater! So different than her big sis. She kicks her little feet in anticipation between each bite (see the top picture.) She has also had some prunes for a little natural remedy. Just sticking with the oatmeal alone was causing a little constipation. So she ate 1 meal of prunes with rice for about 4 days. Then we did 4 days of carrots. Next I think we are going to do squash for a few days.

My next plan is to add in some green veggies. Spinach and/or green beans. I have the whole "rainbow" mentality in my plan. We'll see how it goes. I will also be feeding her fresh bananas, and fresh avocados.

Side note: Stuck indoors on this snow day has been fun, but I am getting a little antsy. I want to get out there, but I don't want to be unsafe. So, I will stay inside. I will plan my meal plan for the next two weeks. I am going to start doing more healthy things that I can track calories. I am back to using www.sparkpeople.com to track my total calories. I did pretty well last week. I don't track calories on the weekend, I just try to watch portion control and sweets on the weekends. I did this last time, and it worked out great. I am going to use www.eatingwell.com to plan meals again.

Lately, my meal plan has revolved around coupons. That tends to lead to a lot of processed stuff. I will incorporate a mixture of both, and see how that works out. Meal planning takes just a few minutes, and a list of what you need to buy at the store. I love it, and do it all the time. It makes it so easy when I walk in the door knowing what we are having that night. I also have it listed to my Google calendar, color coded, and it syncs to my Android phone. So, I always know what we are going to have. I just look at it quickly, and pull out some meat to defrost, and voila! We have a winner.

Blog follower challenge: What's your favorite meal? Do you plan ahead? If you could change 1 thing about your eating habits what would it be?

Making my own baby food...

As my blog title suggests...I am starting something new. Again.

For some reason this seemed daunting, like "Who do I think I am? I have no time, not enough storage etc. etc. Well the more and more I read about it, the more excited I got about it. I already plan our family meals, so what's a few extra veggies that I can steam/bake while cooking dinner? Nothing. Easy peasy.

My plan:
Each week prepare 1 fruit and 1 veggie. Then when Jocelyn is ready to start, I have a good supply.

She isn't eating ANY fruits and veggies just yet. We started her on rice cereal on January 12th, and started oatmeal this past Saturday. This is for two reasons. 1. She is a VERY hungry girl. It was going to start soon, so why not now? 2. There is a learning curve for a baby to learn to eat. I feed her about 1-2 teaspoons of cereal at dinner time when the rest of us sit down at the table to eat. I feel good about this because it starts a very good habit of all of us eating together. We go back and forth on this. In a perfect world we would eat dinner at the table together every night. We usually do it at least 5 times a week. Sometimes on the weekends we eat in the living room while watching a movie. Or just eat at different times. I am VERY pleased that during the week we all get to visit and check in with each others day. But I digress.

I read a lot at different websites about the who, what, when, where, why and how's of baby food. The very basic techniques, the warnings about nitrates, and the suggested ages for babies to eat certain things. It's been 7 years since I last looked into baby food stuff and I forgot a lot. My favorite website is www.wholesomebabyfood.com. Nothing fancy, just the ins and outs of baby food. Making. Storing. Tips.

I wrote out a list of what I wanted to do, and voila! I started tonight. I figured I would start with something fairly easy. Carrots. I went to Sam's and bought a huge bag of organic carrots. I don't always buy organic, just here and there when it seems to make sense. I also bought Gala apples. These weren't organic, but I will wash them good, and peel them. I think that will be fine enough to be "safe."

I first washed the baby carrots then put them in a large pot with lots of water, and turned on the stove. After they were cooking I went ahead and read the website again to make sure I didn't miss anything or forget anything. Organic? Check. Stick Blender? Check. Ice cube trays? Check. All seems good. Then I reread the part about steaming the carrots, and not boiling them. Oh well, close enough. Steamed carrots apparently are better because they retain more nutrients. I'll remember that for the next time.

After the carrots were fork tender I drained them. Retaining about 3-4 oz of the cooking water. I let it cool a few minutes. Then I took the stick blender and blended away. Stopping about every minute to give the batch a stir and check for lumps. All good. About 5 minutes later I was done. I transferred the puree into a large Ziploc bag. Snipped off the corner, and filled each cube in the two trays. 24 cubes later...and my bag was nearly empty. Not a bad estimate of how much I would need and not a lot waste.

I bought specific baby food ice cube trays. I liked them because they had a lid that sealed the tray, thus protecting them from things falling in the food or accidentally getting spilled because they got knocked over.

Rinsed off the dishes, loaded them in the dishwasher and less than an hour later I was done. An hour? Really? Well, it might have been about 45 minutes, but that was just the waiting for the carrots to be done, a little more waiting for the carrots to cool and washing up the dishes.

Tomorrow I will pop the cubes out of the tray. Transfer them into a Ziplock freezer bag. Label it with the date and "Carrots." The move on to apples.

My plan for the apples. Wash. Peel. Core. Cut into cubes. Place in pan. Add water to just cover the apples. Then cook until fork tender. Puree. Transfer to Ziploc bag, pipe into ice cube trays. Freeze.

Two days = 24 servings of carrots, 24 servings of fruit.