Hello, healthy school lunches!

Is this a photo of a buffet lunch?  Is it party food?  Are these nibbles from a recent blogging event?  My latest efforts to cook healthy, yummy food for the kids?  Believe it or not, this is the kind of food that my kids' schools are going to serve to students!

Do you sneak veggies into your kids' food?

Who doesn't love macaroni and cheese?  You can make it less junky by adding pureed cauliflower and using whole-wheat pasta or pasta with veggies already in it.

My kids are good about eating vegetables.  I serve vegetables like tomatoes, cucumbers, all kinds of lettuce, cauliflower, bell peppers, carrots, chickpeas, butternut squash, green beans, celery, mushrooms, onions, avocados, olives and more every day, and they will happily eat them.  But it wasn't always so easy.  When they were younger and in their picky phases, it took a lot of patience and cunning to get those veggies in!  Here are some of the strategies I used to get them to try vegetables:

Healthy choices at Disneyland

I'm a big believer in personal responsibility, so you're not going to find me vilifying fast food companies like McDonald's or soda companies like Coca-Cola for making the products that they do.  I truly believe it is possible to incorporate these foods into your diet, as long as you keep in mind that it's an indulgence (and by indulgence, I mean occasional, not every other day) and watch your portions when you do indulge.

That said, I always appreciate it when big companies acknowledge the huge influence their food and their marketing practices have on the average consumer, and work to inform and educate the consumer, as well as provide healthier options.

Avoiding Tooth Decay this Halloween season

Now that October is here, I just know my kids are going to be eating candy. Yes, I know that as the parent, I'm get the final say ... and for this month, at least, I'm going to let them. Halloween comes once a year, and candy is part of the fun. Now that their school has instituted a no-treats policy, their Halloween parties won't be filled with cupcakes and other sugary treats, and we won't be going to so many Halloween parties or pre-Halloween trick-or-treat fests, so they won't be gorging on candy the whole month long.

Are you Happy with the New Happy Meal?

By now, everyone knows that McDonald's will be changing their Happy Meals to make them healthier for kids. Starting in just a few days, here's what a Happy Meal is going to look like:

Keeping myself honest

Now that July is here, 2011 is a little more than halfway over, so I thought this would be a good time to look back at some of the resolutions I made at the beginning of the year and see how I'm doing:

Forty Before Forty Item #3 and #4: Take Care of Yourself

I know it's a cliche, but most women really do seem to have the wires crossed in their brains when it comes to putting themselves first. Women take care of their kids, their husbands, their parents. They champion their local schools, the environment, hungry kids in Africa. So often, it's at the expense of their own well-being and sanity. I'm up there with the worst of them, and with all the blogging I do, it's easier than ever to put Health at the bottom of my to-do list. I have to admit, it's not all martyrdom that makes me procrastinate when it comes to making dentists' appointments, or getting a wax at the salon, or scheduling some time with friends -- laziness is a huge part of it. But whatever the cause, I need to get better at taking care of myself.

This pearl of wisdom really hit home when I finally got around to making an appointment with my gynecologist for a checkup (Item #3 on my Forty Before Forty list) and mammogram (Item #4). I knew I should have done this long ago, but I was shocked to find out that it had been almost 3 years since my last visit. Yikes! Where did the time go?

And then my doctor found a lump. Two, actually, one on each breast.

Better-For-You Egg Salad

I love egg salad, but now that I'm hell-bent on achieving goal #1 on my 40x40 list, I'm trying to be more aware of what I put into my body. So I bought some low-fat mayonnaise to add to my egg salad today.

But as I was taking the ingredients out of the fridge, a tub of hummus caught my eye, and I thought, why not?

So let it be written. So let it be done.

Since I've made the resolution to get regular exercise this year, I've put my planning hat on and listing down a weekly workout schedule:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1-hr Zumba class
Wednesday: 30 minutes strength training
Thursday: rest
Friday: 1-hr walk or 30-minute run or workout video
Saturday: 30-minute walk + 15 minutes strength training
Sunday: 30-minute run

Medicine cabinet or liquor cabinet?

Last week I had a doozy of a cold; I spent several days suffering from a sore throat, runny nose, hacking cough, buzzing ears and aching head. I know cough and cold medicines don't really help with the cold, but they sure do a heck of a job with the symptoms, so every night I took a dose of NyQuil. Who wants to cough throughout the night when you can take some vile tasting cherry-vanilla flavored liquid and conk out?

The other day I took a closer look at the bottle and noticed this:


On average, beer contains 5-7% alcohol. Wine contains 10-15% alcohol. And this cough syrup has 10%. WOW. I get tipsy with just a couple of sips of wine. No wonder NyQuil knocks me out at night!

Zumba!

Yesterday I attended my first Zumba class. For those of you who aren't familiar with Zumba, it's a cardio workout based on dance steps and music, mainly from Latin America. During the hour-long workout, we danced to salsa, merengue, cumbia, reggaeton, samba and hip-hop. It was smooth. It was hard-hitting. It was sweaty. It was shoulder-shaking, hip-swinging, shimmy-shaking fun!

Getting a running start to 2011

I can feel it. Yes I can: this is the year I'm going to put running back into my lifestyle. Two years ago my plantaar fascitis hurt much too much for me even to consider it; it improved so much last year that I have to admit laziness was the bigger reason for me not lacing up my running shoes more often. So this year I'm going to work on running and walking on a regular basis. And because having an event to train for is such a powerful motivator for me, I've got my eye on quite a few races for 2011:

How to make a Peanut BETTER Sandwich

I love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I don't care much for the taste of them myself, but I love them because my kids love them. Thanks to PBJ's, I have a Go To school lunch that my kids will eat any day of the year.

When school mornings get extra crazy, it's practically a given that the kids will be getting PBJ's for lunch. Because what could be easier to prepare than PBJ? Umm.... how about a pre-made PBJ? For extra lazy busy parents (like me), here's a tip: you can make the sandwiches the night before and freeze them! In the morning, you can throw them in the kids' lunchboxes and cut down on your morning rush. The sandwiches thaw just in time for recess or lunch.



If you're super super super super lazy busy, you can buy Smuckers Uncrustables, which are pre-made, frozen PBJ's with the crusts cut off. My kids love these, but the guilt of buying these became too much, and I decided to make my own frozen PBJs. Now I make a whole bunch of these in advance (about 2 loaves of sandwich bread's worth), use Press N Seal wrap to keep them airtight, and just pull them out of the freezer whenever I need them!

As I mentioned, the kids would eat PBJ's every day -- but I haven't dared test that theory, because they might get sick of PBJ's, and where would I be? So I try to limit PBJ's to once (okay, maybe twice) a week. And I try to vary the sandwich itself to make things more novel and appealing:

* I use medium-sized tortillas to make peanut butter and jelly burritos.
* I spread peanut butter and jelly on lavash bread, roll it up and cut into pinwheels.
* I use cookie cutters (Williams-Sonoma sandwich cutters rock) to cut the sandwiches into cute shapes.

Finally, I do realize that while peanut butter is a great source of protein, the jelly and white bread aren't exactly nutritious foods. So I make healthier substitutions:

* I use whole-wheat bread (or whole-wheat tortillas or bagels or lavash) instead of white.
* I use low-sugar versions of strawberry or grape jelly.
* I sometimes use fruit instead of strawberry or grape jelly. I've used raisins, sliced bananas and smashed-up blueberries, and the kids love all three.
* I sometimes cut out the bread entirely and make Ants On A Log (i.e. spread the peanut butter on celery sticks instead of bread, and put raisins on top instead of jam).


Now and then I do buy a box of white-bread, full sugar Uncrustables, and sometimes I'll even pair the peanut butter with Nutella (chocolate hazelnut spread), which pretty much turns a PBJ into dessert. But those occasions are getting rarer and rarer, and I always make sure I pack carrots or tomatoes or pepper strips or fresh fruit along with it, so the overall lunch is a healthy one. I feel good about packing better peanut butter lunches -- they work for my kids and they work for me!



This post was inspired by the Yahoo Motherboard's Topic of the Month for September: Teaching Kids Healthy Eating Habits. I am not compensated for my participation in this group but I get to belong to a group of smart, savvy moms -- which is compensation enough!

Walking around Manhattan

I'm in New York this week, attending the BlogHer 2010 Conference, and the streets of Manhattan couldn't be more different from the dirt paths of Marlborough. In most of my walks around Alfie's parents' town, I encountered just as many animals and plants as I did people, but around Manhattan the wildlife is decidedly of the human variety.

Neither of those things bothered me as much as the temperature change: the cool morning air and cloudy skies are far, far away now. Yesterday I walked over 50 blocks in the sultry summer heat. It was like walking into a hair dryer! You'd think that a Filipino like me would toss my frizzed-up hair and wonder what all the fuss was about, but years of living in the cool climate of California have wimped me out. Actually, Filipinos avoid being outdoors as much as possible and seek out airconditioned homes, offices, malls and cars. No sane Filipino would walk around in the sun -- which was my precise thought as I trudged up and down midtown Manhattan. Then again, walking 60 miles in 3 days is not quite sane anyway.

In any case, whatever the ground is like, whatever the weather is like, I have to make like the Energizer Bunny and keep going, going, going. The San Francisco leg of the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure® is less than 8 weeks away!

Energizer is sponsoring my participation fee and fundraising requirement for this event, but I would love to be able to raise more for breast cancer. Please help me reach my goal of $1000! Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. You can click on the widget below to donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Walking Around Paris

Earlier this week Alfie and I took the kids to Paris, and just like on our previous trip to Amsterdam, we shunned taxis and buses in order to explore the city on foot. 3Po, Jammy and The Pea were real troopers: we were on our feet for two full days, nonstop. Oh, I'll admit we chickened out and ascended the Eiffel Tower via elevator, and hopped aboard the funiculaire (cable car) to get to the Basilique du Sacre Coeur. But we climbed every one of the 206 steps it took to get to the top of the Pantheon:



And the views of Paris from the top made it all worthwhile.


We roamed the streets of Paris, searching for La Maison Berthillion, which sells the best ice cream in Paris:



We roamed the cemeteries, searching for Oscar Wilde's grave:


We wandered through the underground tunnels of the Paris Metro, connecting from train to train in order to get to various points around the city.


We even went around the Place de l'Etoile (where the Arc du Triomphe is located) and down the Champs Elysees, desperately searching for a toilet.



Unfortunately we couldn't find any -- apparently the police have closed down all the public toilets and there were no pay toilets nearby, so Alfie freaked out at a Metro employee and managed to get access to the Metro employees' toilets -- but at least this Energizer Keep Going Blogger got a good walk out of it. And since the San Francisco Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure® event is only 9 weeks away, I need all the walks I can get!

Energizer is sponsoring my participation fee and fundraising requirement for this event, but I would love to be able to raise more for breast cancer. Please help me reach my goal of $1000! Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. You can click on the widget below to donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Preparing for The Walk -- Rainy Day Gear

10 weeks to go until the San Francisco's Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure®, and I'm starting to think about what I need to take on my 3-day journey. I've been walking around England for several weeks now, and around here there's always a big chance that you'll end up walking in the rain. October in San Francisco is usually cool and dry, so it's unlikely that we'll be seeing any rain during the walk, but having to walk in wet weather has certainly gotten me thinking about some things I might want to pack in my 3-Day for the Cure equipment bag:

* A baseball cap -- having that peak is important for me because I wear glasses. Even a small drizzle can get really annoying; without that peak, I'd need a mini-windshield wiper to keep my lenses raindrop free!


* An extra pair of shoes -- Of course I'll be packing one pair of socks for each of the 3 Days that I'll be walking, but I never really thought about throwing in a couple more pairs, and even an extra pair of walking shoes, just in case they get damp in a drizzle or drenched in a thunderstorm..


* A rain jacket -- A couple of days ago we went to a free event and I picked up a goody bag that contained a lightweight rain slicker. It will be the perfect thing to take to the 3-day walk! Having said that, a friend of mine who walks half-marathons all the time has a different solution -- she likes to take along a plastic garbage bag liner, cut out neck and arm holes and wear it like a potato sack. She says it keeps her from getting chilled in the early stages of the walk, before she warms up, and keeps her dry in case it rains. When she doesn't need it anymore, she simply tosses it into one of the garbage bins lining the route. I'm tempted to follow her example and swap the rain slicker for a garbage bag. However, next week we'll be traveling around Paris -- and seeing all the chic, well-dressed people walking around might just strike shame into my unfashionable self and cause me to change my mind.

Energizer is sponsoring my participation fee and fundraising requirement for this event, but I would love to be able to raise more for breast cancer. Please help me reach my goal of $1000! Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. You can click on the widget below to donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Walking around Amsterdam

I've got 11 weeks till I walk San Francisco's Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure® on October 1-3. Sixty miles in three days is no joke, and as Energizer's Keep Going® Blogger for San Francisco, I want to make sure I actually finish the walk instead of wimping out and hitching a ride with the help wagons. But I'm on vacation with Alfie's family in the UK, and when you've got a full schedule of family activities, it's not easy to find time to take long walks. Despite my jet lag, I've been able to wake up early enough to take hourlong walks nearly every day -- I know, not exactly walkathon distance but as my aching leg and butt muscles keep reminding me, I'm not in the best shape of my life and it will have to do for a start.

This week Alfie and I left the kids with his parents and took a 4-day trip to Amsterdam. I was pretty worried that with all the canal cruises and bus tours and museum visits and lounging around cafes and restaurants, I'd fall off my newfound walking schedule and never get back. I needn't have worried.


We arrived in Amsterdam on the same day that all of Amsterdam (and probably everyone in the suburbs) showed up at the City Center to cheer the Netherlands national football team, who had just finished second in the World Cup. The whole city was a mass of orange, and all the trams had been cancelled, so we had to walk to our hotel. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city, trying to catch a glimpse of the team, who were parading around the city's canals. Our perseverance paid off -- we saw them just after the rally finished, as they were being driven away in big tour coaches.


On Day 2, we took a tour of the countryside, and spent 4 hours walking around quaint, picturesque villages like these.



On Days 3 and 4, we walked all around Amsterdam, looking at museums and buildings and monuments in squares. You don't really notice how much you've been walking when you're surrounded by beautiful buildings, cafes and canals like these.




Or these. The city center is so small and compact that it felt silly to take a tram, so we just walked everywhere. At the end of the trip Alfie and took stock of our adventures and figured out that we had actually walked about 4 hours each day!

If only I were rich enough to visit 11 different cities for each of the 11 weeks leading up to the walk, training would be no problem whatsoever.

Please help me reach my goal of $1000! Any amount helps and is greatly appreciated. You can click on the widget below to donate to the Susan G. Komen foundation.

Happy Fry-Day!

From fish and chips to egg and chips, from sausage and chips to fried bacon and mushrooms, from scotch eggs to a proper English fry-up, there's no doubt that lots of traditional English foods are goooooood... but not so good for you. So it was kind of funny to see this sign painted on the window of a local Birmingham chip shop:

Look after your heart: Eat at the Frying Pan

Maybe they deep-fry their stuff in canola oil instead of lard?

Take Your Medicine, Or Else......

3Po has had a rotten week.  On Monday, he was sent home from school because the school nurse thought he had pinkeye (he didn't).  He stayed home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday because he had a bad cold.  He made it through school on Thursday, but at basketball class on Thursday afternoon he began rubbing his eyes and five minutes later his eyeballs were swollen.  He kept rubbing his eyes, and now they are badly infected.

Poor kid.  To top it off, I have to squirt some antibiotic gunk into his eyes twice a day.  He hates it, says it makes his vision blurry.  The first time I did it, Jammy tried to help his brother out with some words of encouragement:

Jammy:  3Po, better BLURRY than BLIND!

He then proceeded to draw a picture of what 3Po's eyes would end up like if he didn't have the medicine:

If I thought I'd end up looking like Spongebob Squarepants, I'd take my medicine in a hurry.

I'm a SlimPerfect BlogHer Model!

Gawwwwd.. That's just not right. We can't allow her to go prancing around on Thursday night with thaaat on display. They might close BlogHer down for inappropriate display or something. Poor girl. She'll be known as the One Who Shut Down BlogHer. *Shudder*... yah, we'd better give her the dress.



That's probably what Carole, Debba and Casey were thinking when they saw my video entry to the Little Black Dress BlogHer Model search. Or maybe it was the gazillion and one Tweets I pestered them with, begging them to choose me. Or maybe it was my solemn promise to ROCK THAT DRESS and be a totally badass bongga mutha while partying in it.

Whatever the case, they did choose me to be one of their 4 Slimperfect BlogHer models, and now I'm so excited I could burst. But of course I won't burst, because I'll be wearing the Slimperfect Little Black Dress, which is going to hold all of me in. I'm so honored to be in the company of some awesome women: Lisa, Krystle, Courtney, and Jerri-Ann, who's so beloved in the blogosphere that she won a category all her own, People's Choice. Seriously, these women are so inspiring with their weight loss efforts and achievements, they make me feel as small as the Peanut Butter Cookie Bombs I recently stuffed into my mouth. I look forward to meeting you all at BlogHer and partying in our Little Black Dresses!