24 February 2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

Ride for Smiles


Last Saturday, February 16, 2008, DH and I joined the hundreds of motorcycle riders to raise money for children  with facial deformities.  

"The Facing Futures Foundation was founded by pediatric maxillofacial surgeon Dr. Barry Steinberg, M.D., D.D.S., Ph.D., for the surgical correction of birth defects found in children from remote areas of the world. Because these areas do not have the medical facilities necessary to help children with facial deformities, the Foundation brings each child to Jacksonville, Florida to allow proper conditions and assemble the best team of doctors needed for the case.   The Foundation has raised enough money to fly young patients to Jacksonville from countries like Kenya, Ethiopia and Iraq. This year, the medical team hopes to help a child with facial deformities from the Philippines"

The Facing Futures medical team is made up exclusively of volunteers from a variety of specialty areas:
       Craniomaxillofacial Surgeons
       Neurosurgeons
       Plastic Surgeons
       Otolaryngologists
       Speech Pathologists
       Anesthesiologists
       Specialized Nurses

I am truly touched by these kind-hearted peoples' compassion to our unfortunate children. 

That's all for today.  I have to get ready to go to my god's child birthday party in Orange Park, Florida. Oh nohhhhhh!! Pinoy stinky food, you know I can't resist you :-P

 

    15 February 2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

Cheap Date yet V Intimate

Valentine’s Day is one of the few busiest days of the year for restaurants thus the wait is usually an hour or two that explains why DH and I never dine out on the same day.

What better way to celebrate the V night than just the two of us snuggling on our comfy couch feasting on pizza, cheese sticks, cinnamon swirl, apple twist, diet Pepsi and watching an adult erotic movie on a 60 inch TV Sony High Definition Screen?

Man, it was a cheap date but the night ended up with an amazingly rapturous act of expressing our love for each other and I felt so refreshed today as I slept very soundly through the night last night and didn’t wake up until the alarm went off at 5:30  this morning. Life is soooo goooooooood :-) Talk about the perk of having no child around not that I don’t to have kids of my own.

Of course, everyone in the office yesterday was tickled with the Berry Chocolate Bouquet from Edible Arrangements DH sent and had it delivered in my desk early morning of Valentine’s Day. My darling husband is the sweetest, most loving and ideal man in the world. I thank God everyday for the gift of his life and love for me.

Let me spill the secrets that keep our wedded life, well, blissful. I talked about it too in my previous post how to be a couple and still be free.

Well, it's been nearly 9 years when I walked down the aisle and kneeled in front of the altar; 33 year old virgin at that but there was no doubt in my mind and heart that the man I was going to tie the knot with was a dream comes true and I am darn right!

For all these years, I never recall an instance where DH yelled at me; dictates or forbids me to do or what not to do in my life. He usually expresses his own opinion about the matter but respects my own judgment and allows me to make decisions for myself and gives me love, comfort and support whenever I need it. Now, if the issue pertains to our life together as couple, that’s different. We both have to compromise or resolve to find a win-win solution although knowing the nature of my persona—being a haggler as I am with a strong personality plus I have this penchant to hover around him, the end result seemed to favor my side most of the times. My mother-in-law, on the contrary, considers that tactic of mine as simply manipulative. Did she just imply I am a great manipulator? You bet she did but she loves me regardless.

My marriage is not by far perfect but it’s been what I have dreamed it to be. DH and I have petty arguments once in a while mostly on how we do things differently at home and I sometimes get on his nerves with his bad eating habits but we certainly argue in a more civil way. Sex and money are by no means the object of the argument not that we have fantastic sex life every night. Who does anyway? Yeah sure, if you are newly wed couple I wouldn’t dispute that. Those twice or thrice a day meals with midnight snack? Done that too and it used to never wears me out LOL But I mean in this day and age, we all know that as we, women in particular, get older and after being married for quite sometime, more so if there are kids involved, our sexual libidos are slowly going to decelerate its peak. The passion that was once hot and irresistible eventually subsides into an ordinary thing to do. At least in my marriage, after all these years, we still have that devotion to cuddle up if we are too tired to make love, pray and profess our eternal love for each other before going to bed every single night. I am just so relieved by the fact that nowadays, just like me, DH also favors the idea of quality love making over quantity of sex. I am telling you; sometimes the once-a-week of quality love making is worth more than the nightly quickies as this tends to get imbedded in my heart & mind among other parts of the body that seemed to last a lifetime or until the next quality time comes along ;-) 

Saturday Gig

Tomorrow, Saturday, February 16, 2008, DH and I are going to be riding our HOG to join hundreds of riders to raise money for children  with facial deformities.  So Jacksonville folks, if you plan to go somewhere tomorrow expect for some long traffic delays in some areas of Jacksonville, Florida specially on the beaches side of town.

The Ride begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Adamec Harley-Davidson located at 8909 Baymeadows Road, Jacksonville, Florida to

Here are the routes:

 Leaving Adage to Baymeadows Road
 Baymeadows Rd to I95 South
 I 95 South to SR 9A North
 SR 9A North to J. Turner Butler Blvd East
 J. Turner Butler to A1A North (3rd Street)
 A1A North to Beach Blvd
 Beach Blvd to SR 9A North
 SR 9A to Dames Point Bridge
 Exit Heckscher Drive to SR 9A South
 SR 9A to I 95 North
 I 95 North to Baymeadows Rd
 Baymeadows Rd to Adamec Parking Lot

I’ll talk more about the ride and posts pics on Sunday.

 

    10 February 2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

Only in America!

Sunday is the only day of the week I get a break from work and get my household chores done after Church service because my volunteer work at the AARP Tax-Aide Program had started two weeks ago.    Volunteering to do taxes for the senior citizens, low to middle income residents of Duval County is such a pleasant and fulfilling experience for me to say the least because not only I enjoy what I am doing but it also feels so good being able to do something to make a difference in someone’s life.

Please understand that in as much as I’d love the idea of helping people get back on their feet but I do, on the other hand, have a problem watching people sitting on their asses; having three to five kids and who knows what; doing drugs and etc yet collect monthly government welfare checks every month and getting $3,000 to $6,000 tax refund while I work my ass off paying 15% of my income tax and the government distributes these taxes as it sees fit. I also don't get the logic behind having more kids just to get a tax refund at the end of year; do you?   Something has to change in this country otherwise these people won’t learn the value of hard work.

Anyway, if you want to avail of this statewide free tax service from AARP Program, click this link. Don’t worry folks, all volunteers are IRS Tax Certified individual who took the vows of confidentially and professionalism hence you can completely trust us not to disclose your personal information to anyone.

Here's another deal from IRS: If your 2007 adjusted gross income is $54,000 or less, you can use IRS Free File to prepare and e-file your taxes online.

Now, if you can't afford to pay the tax professionals to do your taxes and you want to do it on your own,  you have two options to chose from:  You can either buy tax software in a box or opt for an online filing service.   The main thing about using the boxed software vs. online filling is privacy. Using the boxed software, your personal information is saved only on your own computer rather than sitting in a tax company’s database online although their databases are encrypted and secured by user’s password; however who knows who got an access from the insiders right?

The best thing about online filling is like having a safe deposit box where you can easily access your account any time to look things up and print out information if you need it quickly for a lender, school financial-aid applications or for immigration purposes.

The drawback about boxed software is, if you are like some of the people I knew who don’t give a damn about following a filing system, and you lost your data in your hard drive; no back-up whatsoever, then you’re screwed.

That being said, I suggest you check out these four reputable, established companies with strong histories of operating online tax processing for individuals, business establishments and/or government agencies.

H&R Block's TaxCut or H&R Block's Online
Intuit's Turbo Tax
CCH's Complete Tax
Petz Enterprises' TaxBrain

All of them will let you try out their service without paying but you'll get charged for e-filing your tax return of course. I played with each one of them online and I personally recommend H&R Block’s TaxCut software for straightforwardness and user’s friendly feature. It's fun playing with their different options and tools so try them out even for just your learning experiences. Caution: If you do it for fun, do not ever type out your confidential information such as name, SSN, birthday and home address.
 

 

    6 February 2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

All Time Favorite Breakfast Meal

DH is a homebody type of man: he likes gardening, cooking and baking.  I am so grateful he does most of the cooking at home but then when we both started to put on weight because his dish is always loaded with too much of everything (he is like the male version of Paula Dean if you know what I mean) I had to take over the kitchen.  The problem is, I am one of those people who couldn’t follow clear-cut recipe instructions especially when half of the time I don’t even recognize most of the ingredients. Hence, I do most of my cooking by experiment--eye-balling the ingredients and tasting it. While experimenting, sometimes things will not work out as well as I had hoped but at times I whip up something so delicious to his liking. The best thing about DH is, he eats and just gobbles down whatever I put on his plates.

So there if you are out of time, leave out the recipe instructions and you’ll still have a tasty and healthy dish—in a lot less time of preps and cooking.

Anyway, as healthy experts say the most important meal of the day is breakfast so I always make time to whip up a simple and easy dish and this recipe becomes DH’s all time favorite breakfast meal every morning.

Ingredients:
2 corn tortillas (25 calories per piece)
¼ cup egg whites (50 calories)
1 piece smoke turkey 94% fat free (30 calories)
¼ cup Chipotle cheese (80 calories)
Optional: tomatoes, onions and peppers
Pam Spray

*Red flakes pepper
*Garlic powder
*Peppercorn
         *This is where variations of seasoning come very handy. Every day, I sprinkle my egg omelet with different type of herb-salt free seasonings

Calories: 210 calories
Fat: 2g
Sodium: 385mg
Carbohydrates: 12g
Fiber: 2g
Protein: 12g

 

Motivation

I needed a big push to really get serious in achieving my target weight in time for the Bike Week on March 2-8, 2008 so I will have all the guts to wear this size 4P Harley halter top (dare me not, darling!)  Besides, I also made a pact with Geri to post a new photo of me wearing my wedding gown as soon as she's done posting hers. 

We'll see in a month if I will still be able to fit in this wedding dress .  Just so you know I was only 107 lbs on my wedding day and that was 8.6 years ago.  This morning, I am 114.5 lbs and I intend to lose at least 1.5 lbs a week. Wish me luck!

 

    1 February 2008 -  Jacksonville, Florida USA                                        

 

What's in your Kitchen?

I was told by a nutritionist that one of the essential keys to live a healthy lifestyle is first and foremost, set up a healthy kitchen by tossing all junk foods that are too tempting to grab especially when you’re too tired and hungry. Instead, stock up your fridge and cupboard with lots of healthy choices--- food items that suit to the taste buds of each family member. You have to do this for the same reason that you cannot impose a healthy diet that your love ones are going to reject as foreign to their tastes because it will surely fail.

So I'll let you take a peek of the stockpile of good-eats that we keep in our kitchen. The foods you see are precisely what we strictly ate on a daily basis when DH lost an incredible 75 lbs. last year!  Now, I don't buy all of them together at the same time but I try to stick to the list as much as possible. I sometimes buy those frozen vegetables too but it can get soggy after you cook them so we'd rather pay a little bit more for fresh vegetables and fruits.

Mayo Clinic says that a balance diet should be composed of 40% healthy carbohydrates (whole grains, fruits and vegetables), 30% lean protein (chicken, fish) and 30% healthy fat (olive oil, nuts).

Carbohydrates: Grains, cereals , breads and pasta
Whole grains: oatmeal and multi-grain bread (make sure it says 100% whole wheat or 7 to 17 grains; and look for the ones that's 45 to 90 calories per slice.
Instant Brown Rice
Whole Grain Rice
Whole wheat Pasta
Tam-x-ico's Corn Tortilla 25 calories a piece
Tortillas (La Factory 50 calories a piece)
WASA crackers (pick the one with highest fiber)
All Bran Cereals (50% Fiber; 0 Sugar)
Whole Grain Pancakes
Quaker Oats

Fresh Vegetables
Bell Peppers (green, red, yellow or orange)
Celery, Zucchini, Cauliflower, Squash
Broccoli, Green beans, Lettuce, Radish
Tomatoes, Cabbage, Carrots, Peas
Lemons, Scallion, Bean Spouts

Frozen Vegetables
Gumbo
Mix vegetables

Fresh Fruits
Blackberry
Grape Fruit
Strawberry
Blueberry
Apple
Mango
Orange, Pineapple
Banana, Cherry, Grapes

Protein:  Meat, poultry and fish & seafood
Tilapia
Salmon
Shrimp
Turkey & Chicken breast (you can broil/grill it with skin but don’t eat the skin)

Ground Turkey/Chicken/Beef (Lean 93% fat free.  Makes good Chili)
Sirloin Steak (up to 6 oz. once a week only)
Lamb, Veal
Smoked Turkey Sausage/Patties

Nuts: Make sure they are unsalted
Almonds, Cashews and Walnuts
A little fat provides satiety. Foods with omega-3 fatty acids—found in walnuts and soybeans, among others—are healthy sources of unsaturated fat.

Canned/bottled foods and oils
Black beans
Pinto beans
Red beans
(beans in can are quicker to cook but make sure you rinse it off to reduce the sodium contents)
Classico Fire Roasted Tomatoes in a bottle
Salsa
Organic PAM spray
Olive Oil
Canola oil
I can’t believe it’s not butter

Dairy, juice, eggs, beverages
Hard Cheese
Chipotle cheese
Low Fat Mexican Cheese
Low Fat Mozzarella cheese
Low Fat Cheddar cheese
Low Fat Yogurt
Soy Milk (we like Vanilla flavor; you can get the one with added Omega or Fiber)
Milk 1% or Low fat Milk
100% Liquid Egg Whites - 75mg sodium

Teavana Green Tea
Diet V8 Splash Berry Blend (only 10 calories per 8 oz)
Any high protein drinks as long as it is sugar free or up to max of 2 grams of sugar

Salad Dressings:
Walden Farms' Salad Dressings;
* Calorie Free
* Fat Free
* Sugar Free
* Cholesterol Free

* Delicious – Flavorful
There are tons of selections that are 0 to 70 calories per serving. Check their website.

Condiments, Spice & Seasoning:
Onion Powder
Garlic Powder
Sea salt
Cinnamon powder
Black Pepper
Red Pepper
Mrs Dash has tons of selections that are salt-free

I also have a stash of healthy "convenient foods" on hand for times when there is NO time to cook. I usually stock them up when it’s 50% off the regular price) You see, busy schedules create a need for quick and easy meals and once you have your Healthful PANTRY set up, it's just as easy to "mix & match" and whip up a healthy meal or you can turn to this food without much thought rather than do fast food drive-through.

Kashi (12g to 17g of Protein which is very good. I prefer Black Bean Mango, Sweet & Sour Chicken & Southwest Style Chicken)
Lean Cuisine
Weight Watchers
Healthy Choice

Shopping tips:
Reading food Labels is very IMPORTANT! One thing to bear in mind regarding frozen or pre-pack foods in cans and bottles is to AVOID processed foods made with High Fructose Corn Syrup  or partially hydrogenated oils/fat as part of the ingredients.  Sugar contains empty calories and can cause spikes in blood sugar that leave you feeling hungrier. Most processed foods also contain excessive amounts of sodium, which can lead to high blood pressure. Bottom line is cut down on processed foods as much as possible.

Why cook?

Think of it this way: When you cook, you have complete control of the ingredients thus you can alter or substitute ingredients to make it lower in fat and calorie meal especially if you are consciously counting your calorie intake plus if you are watching your budget, you’ll save hefty amount every month by cooking rather than dining out or getting a drive-thru fast food or Chinese take out. 

That being said, what's in your kitchen Ate G, Geri,  Mel, & Sandy?

Here's the rest of the photos in my kitchen    
I promise to share some of my very own simple recipes next issue :-)

P.S. Total weight lost for the month of January 2008 was: 6 lbs for DH and 3 lbs for me.   We are doing it slowly but surely this time ;-)