Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Mommy dating / Girl dates

I was invited to go grocery shopping with Woman I met on freecycle.
This happened last week. I went shopping and afterwards she asked me
over to her house. Her husband (no kids) was out of town and I felt
really naughty for going.. I mean frozen food in the trunk, my hubby
at home with the kids.

But I did. I went to her house. I drank apple cider from a packet
and she drank something... not sure she mentioned it wasn't tea so
that it wouldn't keep her up all night.

We got there about TEN and I Left a little after midnight. I felt
exhilarated! I felt like I had been on a date.

Then today I read this article and realized, I felt that way because
pretty much it WAS a date.

<http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/11/06/the_perils_of_mommy_dating/>

It was a meeting of two people in a public place to initiate
friendship and find out if you can stand each other. That is what
dating is right?

So I went on a girl date.

I am so proud of me for making a friend. We have been emailing a
little about gardens and compost. Just what close friends talk about
right [GRIN]!

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sensa media todo's and an update

I wanted to mention some recent articles that have been written on Sensa.

The first one is on the Daily Candy. I was checking the site out
after Amanda sent me the link and the Daily Candy seems like a hip fun
place. I like pages that have good articles and arrange them in such
an easy way to navigate.

The Daily Candy featured 2 articles about Sensa on January 7, 2009.
The links are below:
<http://www.dailycandy.com/new_york/article/40986/Sensationally+Thin>
<http://www.dailycandy.com/new_york/article/40987/Sprinkle+Your+Way+to+Slim>

The two articles are good at distilling the main ideas about Sensa. I
like the Sensationally Thin one because it is all simply technical :-)


Today, Sensa is featured on the homepage on HSN and MSN. The links are below:
<http://www.hsn.com/todays-special_xh.aspx?cm_re=billboard*SENSA_DietProgramTS_BB_and_Launch*background>
http://www.msn.com/ (Shopping Section on homepage)

This is a link to buy Sensa from HSN and there is also some reading
material on there about it. It is on Today's Special (1/26/2009) for
74.95 for a 2-month starter kit. If you visit the Daily Candy article
you can click through to a sale for 31 percent off on a 3 month
starter kit - the better deal.

I am on my 3rd week on Sensa. I feel ok, I am not constipated (more
of the opposite but not quite), my energy levels are good, and I am
losing weight... a little bit but still losing.

I want an electric treadmill but I don't want to pay $1000 or more. I
asked on freecycle but no luck. <sigh>

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

HS activities and posterity

For activities with the kids: I joined 2 groups. One 'free' group.
The kind you find on yahoo and etc. They do park days and started a
coop this year that I didnt join in on because it was happening while
I was busy when it started and they were fairly disorganized at that
point. They are pretty nice so I do hope to continue doing park days
with them and hopefully in the future maybe it might become something
more that 'those homeschool kids'.

The second is a pay to join group. They are organized (roberts rules
of order lol) and have a coop on fridays. I didnt join their coop
this term because the classes offered didnt quite fit into a workable
schedule. But they do have open lego play and pokemon league during
the coop day so I am welcome to bring the kids any time for that. I
plan on it and everyone is really nice.. maybe more crunchy than me
but maybe just the vocal ones lol. I think that this is one that
could turn into something that is a keeper too. The age range in
this coop is avg to younger than my kids so it is potentially a group
that we can grow with.

I went to a face to face meet with the above group a couple of weeks
ago (by myself) and it was nice to sit with a group of women drinking
tea and talking in coherant sentences, and not have to worry about the
kids. My kids are good kids by the way, or at least I think so, but
still being somewhere where the only person you have to worry about is
yourself is GREAT. I guess those meetings will be my version of Risa's
Thursday night yoga classes :-P

I think I will post this letter to my blog as well because I think it
is the kind of thing that will be interesting to look back on and see
hey I am doing so much better now than I was then.

April

Monday, January 19, 2009

Sensa

I weighed in this morning.


Oh you want to know?


220.5


I actually forgot to weigh in last week. so it has been 13 days since
my last weight check. 226.5 - 220.5 = 6

6 lbs in 13 days is almost half a pound a day. I am a cynic though
and think that it could be normal weight fluctuation.

To-do: take tape measure measurements. I will post these as a
separate post when I do them.

So that is the boring stuff.

How have I been doing with Sensa?

Sometimes I forget to use the sensa. I don't think it is very often.
for example, if we say 4 meals and 2 snacks a day, and I am forgetting
once every 2 days or so for a miss factor of 1 in 12 or 8 percent.
Not bad I think.

What kind of changes have I made in my routine because of Sensa?

using Sensa makes me think about what I eat / put in my mouth. How
can it not when everything must be sprinkled. In a controlled trial
of this product, I would think that there would need to be 3 groups.
The Sensa group, a group taught mindful eating, and a group that
didn't have a class on mindful eating. I expect that some of Sensa's
success has to do with being mindful of what you are eating along with
any science to the tastants.

I don't think I care. If it works then I am grateful.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

SO TRUE!!

The following is really true.  There is a culture of rudeness and one-up-ness.  Rarely do you find a group that you trully can feel like being open and totally yourself without being judged.  I recommend you subscribe to the following blog.  It is such a fun read and the pictures are wonderful.  You can get a link to where she sells her Little Travelers videos on her blog. The videos are taken with the perspective of her children in mind and are truly cool to watch.



excerpt from Angelina Hart's Little travelers blog.  It can be found here.  The original blog article HERE.

My point here is that in our country we do not have a common mothering culture.  We rarely tend to parent similar to other mothers around us and therefor don't seem to have a common connection to other mothers.  It is a rare instance when I can share a smile and a gesture with a mother at a park that says, "I know how you feel."  Sometimes I will look to a mother with a tantruming toddler wanting to just smile at her in a way that says, "I've been there."  but rarely will that woman look at me for fear that she is being judged.  I think it has much to do with our societies focus on competitiveness that drives much of this.  If my children aren't in the middle of a tantrum and yours are that must mean that I'm winning at being a parent and you are losing.  There really is not a sense of common ground in most cases.  Within our own small groups sometimes that spirit of 'in it together' does emerge, but I'm talking about with strangers in the park or the grocery store.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Spelling Activity


I made a stamping spelling activity for Judy.  It is a set of alphabet stamps I got at Hobby Lobby on clearance.  A recycled Fruit Roll up box, a stamp pad and note cards.


Here is how it is supposed to work:


This is how the finished product is supposed to look:




I learned a trick for gleaning everyday spelling words from a mom I met on AP_Homeschoolers.  Susan would (still might)  take words which her children didn't know.  When her children read out loud, she made a note of words they didn't know or stumbled on, and she would create ther weekly spelling list from those words.  

I select a poem in the morning and while D and J are working on their first work, I read it to them.  Then When Davy is working on Voyages in English, I have Judy read the poem back to me.  I have been collecting words from that and will give her a small list to stamp tomorrow.

The poems this week have been really fun.  The first poem was The Adventures of Isabel  by Odgen Nash, and Jimmy Jet and His TV Set  by Shel Silverstein.



I have a Nutter. No I am not British, I just have a good
friend. Who is. British.
Davy is my nutter, my crazy kid,
my boy who likes to think up impossible scenarios and then ask you
about them.

Davy: "How do you lick something that can't be licked?"

Me: I just looked at him.

Davy: "Like your tongue!"

Then he laughed madly and ran away. I am not sure what to think of
that. Is he French kissing himself? Is he just wanting to taste
something new and different? HAHA He is 9. and a half.

He is so silly and funny sometimes. I really love him a lot :-) I
worry that he is too exuberant for groups though. He is the reason I
home school. Judy is the reason I became 'AP'.

Together both my children have taught me a different way of living and
handling life. isn't that what growing up is all about?

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Sensa, doing its job however that is

I started using Sensa and wanted to touch base with how I perceive it
to be working. My educational background is social/psyche so I will
probably also be analyzing myself too.

I didn't think that an over the counter product would have that big of
a non-amphetamine effect. I understand the concept, the Tastants(R)
are inhaled both through your mouth as you are chewing and through
your nose on the way in. They chemically interact somehow with the
center of the brain responsible for fullness and satiety. The above is
my take, please comment if you know different or if I said it in a
wrong way.

So I have been using this powder. There is sweet/salty. You use the
powder for what the food mostly is, salty on Pizza, sweet on a candy
bar. Salty on a Payday maybe and sweet on corn.

The thing I wonder the most, is about the psychology of mindful
eating. I used to belong to a yahoo group a couple of years ago
called no-diet. There are also books that address this topic [mindful
eating]. Does this powder work or does it make me THINK about
everything I put into my body? One of the things about successful
'diets' or eating plans usually is that you track everything that goes
into your body.

I am not counting calories. I am not tracking carbs, fat, or sugar.
I don't know if I am losing weight either because I haven't weighed
since I did the first 'before the diet' weigh-in. The thing that I am
doing now that is different than before Sensa is: 1) I stopped
drinking soda (approx 5 cans a week) and 2) I am actively thinking
about what I eat by having to remember to sprinkle the powder.

I am not eating as much. The materials for Sensa mentioned that it
wouldn't work right away, but that I would see results and to keep
using the powder. I think I am seeing results already. I am
thrilled. I have always been a foody. I like the taste of food and
hate to leave food on my plate. Yet since I started Sensa I have been
mindful of eating, and trying to stop and say to myself "Do I want
more?". I have surprised myself when I have chosen to stop eating, and
not felt like I was still hungry.

I think it's working and I am excited. Now if only they could come up
with a powder to make me WANT to exercise.

Thursday, January 8, 2009


I weighed in.   I know I promised  a Sensa blog two days ago, but things are just  not happening like I thought they would. I weighed in Tuesday and I am 226.  I will weigh in once a week and blog once a week about how the diet is going and what I think about Sensa.

Good luck to the others out there who are starting a weight loss Journey this month.


Friday, January 2, 2009

Happy New Year!


We have one more 'Christmas/New Years' celebration and then 2009 will officially be real for me :-)

We leave for Waco early in the morning and return home Sunday.  There will be lots of food, family and fun.

Ok - Some resolutions for 2009



Change my eating habits.  I don't want to commit to a diet that will or will not fail,  but small changes like whole foods, and no soda.

Add in exercise to my routine.  I read an article that designated a mile at 20 minutes on avg, or 2000 steps on a pedometer.

Blog  twice a week.  Once for Sensa, once for my life.

Meet/make some friends.  I am lonely.

Finish unpacking and set up the house in a more decorated style.

Become more Frugal.

yell less

play more

smile more



Thanks for Reading and here is hoping that you have a prosperous 2009