Category: health

Colds

by Karen, posted in fitness, health

“The first wealth is health,” said Ralph Waldo Emerson.

You can say that again.

After not catching a cold for years and years, I have had two (this is my second) in one month.

How did this happen? True, my friends have had colds, and my husband and daughter are just getting over colds, but I have been surrounded by sick people every winter, not just this one, and have not gotten sick. At the first sign of a cold, whether it be my own or someone else’s, I took my Airborne and never gave it another thought.

Needless to say, this is not working this winter. (Hmmmm, I wonder if they’ve changed the formulation of Airborne…note to self: check on this!).

Okay, to be honest, the other thing that’s different this winter is that I am not religiously exercising at least 3 times a week as I have during winters gone by.Why not? That’s easy: I just don’t feel like it. In fairness to me, though, it’s also because a lot of the “found time” I’ve used for writing used to be carved out for exercising. Oh, and I’m eating small baked goods (read: sugar) way more often than I was last year. There is a school of thought that says sugar (in addition to feeding one’s soul) feeds one’s germs…

If your best efforts (Airborne, extra Vitamin C, good ol’ fashioned careful hand washing, and not touching your face)  fail to ward off that cold, what do you do? Besides suffer, I mean.

  1. Chicken soup.
  2. Tea with honey (oh heck, even just the honey! A nice, big tablespoon of it!).
  3. Rest in bed (or on the couch) under the comfy blanket with your best pillow (and biggest box of Kleenex).
  4. Okay, who are we kidding? You know that you’re going to end up having to go to work. Get up as late as you can and get back in bad as soon as you can.
  5. Try not to annoy the fam with your coughing (read: try not to be annoyed with the unsympathetic fam).
  6. Use cough drops, DayQuil, NyQuil (save money! buy generic!)…whatever makes you feel better.

Remember that “This too shall pass”. Even if it doesn’t feel like it will anytime soon.

Put the ‘OM’ in O(at)Meal

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health, Life in the cube, restaurants
McDonald's oatmeal

McDonald’s has a new(ish) menu item. Believe it or not, it’s oatmeal.

I know! I mean, seriously, right?

If I’m going to McDonald’s, I’m going for a quarter pounder (no cheese!), not  “health” food!

But one day I needed a quick breakfast and my nice friend Pauline had given me a coupon for a free McD’s oatmeal, so I gave it a try.

Well. It’s GREAT. All I did was doctor it up some with about a tablespoon of cinnamon. Hey, cinnamon might lower blood sugar and it might lower cholesterol, so what the heck?

McD’s says that it’s available to order all day, so if you’re trying to lose (or just to stop gaining) weight and are short on time, it might be a better choice for a meal than some others available to you. (Note: they add cream to their oatmeal which I would ask them to leave out next time: saves about 20 calories).

Of course, you could always keep a box of oatmeal in your desk at work for emergencies too (if you have access to a microwave, that is. Oh, and a bowl, spoon, and half a cup of water. 🙂 )

National Homemade Soup Day

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, health, Karen's Kitchen, Pantry Project, tweens

This year, it’s this week (yesterday, actually) but hey, soup is forgiving! So….here’s some reasons to dive in:

Top 5 reasons to make some homemade soup:

  1. You’ve got some leftover turkey (or chicken)  bones from your Thanksgiving (or Christmas or New Year’s Day) dinner in your freezer.
  2. You are living in New England, it’s winter, and you are freezing your butt off.
  3. You are dealing with a head/sinus/chest cold (in which case, get someone else to make it for you).
  4. You picked up a rotisserie chicken for dinner, and want to get one another meal from it.
  5. You have a crock pot. Give it something to do.

You will find no shortage of recipes online (and probably in your own collection of seldom used cookbooks) for homemade soup, not to mention on the labels of canned or boxed broth.  Or just go on intuition and taste as you go…it’s hard to mess up soup.

Speaking of leftovers in the fridge, if you have any leftover pasta from another night’s dinner, use that in your soup (I happened to have some linguini). Don’t forget to forage in your crisper drawers for any (perhaps long) forgotten carrots, celery, onions, and other (still recognizable) vegetables to add to your soup.

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Water torture? Not!

by Karen, posted in books, health

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” ~Wayne Dyer

Last night I was trying to shut off my (monkey) mind long enough to fall asleep when I became aware of a noise that at first I couldn’t place.

What was it? Oh no…drip, drip, drip….It was water. Dripping water, like of the water torture variety.  A little more investigation gleaned some annoying information: it was from somewhere outside. You know, so that it couldn’t be shut off. OMG. I could feel my blood pressure inching up as I was freaking out about my coming sure-to-be-sleepless night of listening to the drip-drip-dripping water (icicles melting from the roof) when I suddenly had another thought. This time though, it was a useful thought.

It was Wayne Dyer’s quote (above) that popped into my head. I had heard it earlier that day in an audiobook.  There was not a thing on God’s green earth that I could do at 10 o’clock at night to stop the dripping water outside, but hey, maybe I could change how I was thinking about the dripping water?

I gave it a try:

  1. I’m grateful for the roof over my head.
  2. I’m happy to be in my own bed in my own home.
  3. Maybe the dripping is not so bad?
  4. What if I try to meditate? I could say the “So Hum” meditation (the one that I know I can do without thinking too much about it).
  5. What if every time I notice a drip, I (mentally) say the word “So”, then the next drip, I say the word “Hum”, and so on?  Which at least gave me something constructive to do and actually might coax my blood pressure back down to an acceptable level?

Well…guess what! It worked! I still heard it, but it didn’t make me anxious or mad anymore. In an odd sort of way, it felt comforting. So here’s a corollary to Wayne’s quote: If you change the way you listen to things, the things you listen to change.

🙂

You, Mii, and Wii

by Karen, posted in family, fitness, health, Holidays, tweens

Hate exercise? Mii too.  Well, I do if you are referring to

  1. Going to the gym
  2. Jogging
  3. Stairmaster
  4. Shoveling

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you are not shocked by this admission. I do to practice yoga and like to hula hoop, but getting exercise is a byproduct (for me) of the activity, not the goal.

Enter Christmas. Enter the Wii. Now, when I used to go to Curves, some of the older (than me) women would talk about how much they enjoyed exercising with their Wii Fit games. I was interested in their stories, but not motivated in finding out any more about it.

Then I went to my brother’s house for Christmas and they were using their Wii and the kids were having so much fun that I thought, “Hey, maybe there is something to this…” When my 12-year-old niece persuaded my brother to get off the couch and dance to “Viva Las Vegas” with her, I made up my mind to get that game for my family.

I’ve never looked back. After I bought the console to play the games, which came with one controller and one nunchuk, I sprang for an additional controller and nunchuk. You need two of each to play against each other in boxing, and my daughter wanted to box with me (should I read anything into that??).

It’s really only me and my tween daughter (and her friends) using the Wii right now, but I’m hopeful that my husband will join in at some point (hey, virtual boxing with your spouse could expel a lot of demons, don’t you think?). I made a “Mii” for him already (and he’s a hunk!) so he’ll be all set to go.

Can’t wait to knock him out.

🙂

Cupcake Bakery in Sanford

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, baking, fitness, friends, local fun, quest for the best, tweens
Coconut Bunny cupcake (one of the "Groupies")

I was returning my books at the library this weekend, two of which happened to be about cake baking, when one of the staffers said, “Have you tried that new cupcake bakery in Sanford?” “There’s a new cupcake bakery in Sanford??” I asked (of course, she had me at “cupcake”). She did a little research for me and discovered Cupcake Fetish Bakery, 883 Main Street in Sanford.

An hour and a half later, we were there. It’s in a little group of stores next to Get Fired Up! The parking lot is just before the shops, and if you see St. Ignatius St. on your right, go back! You’ve just passed it.

When you enter the shop, the counter is on the right, but if you look to the left, you’ll see Amy the baker through the window, plying her craft. Jennifer will take your cupcake order, which you can get boxed up to go, or you might choose to sit at one of the cute little tables (as my daughter Izzy and her friend Madi did)  in the shop.

Our choices today were a Chocolate Dream Warrior cupcake with pink vanilla bean frosting, a MegaDough cupcake (complete with chocolate chip cookie on the top and cookie dough hidden inside!), and a red velvet whoopie pie. We took a Coconut Bunny cupcake and a traditional chocolate whoopie pie home with us. All were excellent.

There are different items every day, but not all of the menu items are available every day, so check out their Facebook Page to find out what they are offering the day that you are going. They categorize the cupcakes as “Groupies”  and “Rock Stars”… hmmm…wonder what that’s about?

Note: the menu states that they will close early if they sell out!

After the bakery? An hour of Wii Just Dance 2 to work off the goodies. 🙂

Verdict: worth the trip.

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Snow day top 10 fun things to do (Part 2)!

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, family, fitness, local fun, tweens

Can you believe that we’re (possibly) getting (yet) another storm tomorrow? Just in case you exhausted your personal Top 10 list of things to do, here’s another bunch of ideas.

  1. Go sledding. By now, you (most likely) have piles of snow that are plenty big enough for the kids to sled on right in your yard.
  2. Go snowshoeing and/or  ice skating (if it’s possible to get to a rink).
  3. Have a snowball fight. Better yet, suggest it to the kids and you (mom or dad) stay safely in the house and watch from the window.
  4. Go swimming…if only to break up the monotony. Lots of hotels/inns offer off-season (read: cheap) passes you can buy to use their pool.
  5. Send them outside with their hula hoop. Really.
  6. Have a “P” picnic (not that kind of “P”! Been spending too much time with the pre-schoolers??). Pizza, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pancakes, popcorn, pretzels, pineapple chunks…have it INDOORS. Spread out an old quilt/blanket/sheet on the living room floor (move the coffee table, or whatever ou of the way) and have your picnic supper in front of the TV for a treat.
  7. Wii Just Dance 2…this is worth the effort for mom and/or dad to get up off the couch to play.
  8. Make cocoa. This make some planning to make sure you have some in the house before it snows. Swiss Miss is good enough (per Consumer Reports), especially if  you top it off with mini-marshmallows, whipped cream, cool whip (or all of the above)…Fluff will also do the job very nicely (careful that the volume of Fluff doesn’t outstrip the portion of cocoa. 🙂 )
  9. Pretend it’s still summer. Send the kids out to play with their sand pails and shovels (or kitchen utensils and plastic Tupperware bowls) to dig (or “cook”) in the snow.
  10. Make snow angels. Take pictures for the scrapbook.

Finally: avoid keeping the TV on those news programs that just spew an endless loop of doom and gloom and have some fun instead!

The (other) cure for what ails you

by Karen, posted in health, quest for the best
Kamasouptra Chicken Noodle Soup

Apart from the ocean, the other cure for anything is homemade chicken (or turkey) soup.

Who supports using chicken soup as a curative? Well, besides me and most of the mothers and grandmothers in the history of the world, The Mayo Clinic sings its praises.  Chicken soup acts as an anti-inflammatory and it also speeds up the passage of mucous…good if you have a head cold.

Now, don’t get me wrong; you will still see me going to bed clutching my bottle of (generic or otherwise) NyQuil if I have a cough that’s keeping me (or other unsympathetic spouses who shall remain nameless) awake at night.

For today, I’d like to sing the praises of Kamasouptra’s Chicken Noodle Soup, which I had the great good fortune to eat this week. I was sold as soon as the counter person told me that they cook the noodles separately and add them into the soup when they serve it on a bowl by bowl basis so that “they don’t get overcooked”. I told him,  “That’s exactly how I make it at home!” (he didn’t seem impressed when I told him this though).

Got a cold? Get some soup!

Re-entry; it’s a…(well, YOU know)

by Karen, posted in fitness, friends, health, Life in the cube

So, first day back to work after a few (or many) days off is always difficult, right? Add to that being sick and having major dental work the day before, and you’ve just added a heap of insult to injury.

The sound of that alarm going off for the first time in days was a rude awakening.

Here’s what I did to ease my transition back to Real (working) Life:

  1. I skipped the gym. I am always looking for excuses to back out of my Tuesday workout but today I got permission from an impartial bystander (my husband!) whose advice was, “I wouldn’t go; why look for trouble?” Point well taken. I didn’t go.
  2. Instead of woofing my usual Tuesday Vitatop and cold coffee for breakfast as I ran out the door, I made some scrambled (fresh!) eggs and packaged it up with my leftover home fries from The Good Table in Cape Elizabeth (the portions are so big that this is the third meal I’ve made with them!) and even was slowed down enough to remember to bring a little container of ketchup (what are eggs without ketchup? I ask you) to accompany them.  When I got to work (early!) I discovered they had my (current) favorite coffee, Spicy Eggnog. I had a good book, good food, and good coffee. Things were looking (somewhat) up.
  3. Reminded myself: Go slow!!! It will all still be there tomorrow (and the day after that, and after that…).
  4. Look for any positive things you can find in your day. Look hard. They’re there somewhere. I had a nice ‘thank you’ phone message from someone for a Christmas gift waiting on my voicemail at work, which totally gave me a positive energy boost.
  5. Coffee. Make sure you have plenty to get you through the day.

Of course, don’t underestimate the value of support from friends,  in person or even via email. Sometimes, a bit of empathy from a friend is really all you need. 🙂

My New Year’s Word

by Karen, posted in (it's all about the) food, fitness, Holidays

I’m sorry, but I have to ask: is there a more thankless job than deconstructing Christmas? I mean, touring the house, scavenging all the nooks and crannies for the little Santas, Nutcrackers, and whatnots that have been stashed hither and yon, all in the name of festivity, inevitably finding one or two refugees after all of the boxes have been packed away in the closet, back under other things?

Does anyone like taking the decorations off the tree?

And then there’s the back of your mind, New Year’s Resolution thing lurking, lurking… I don’t typically make New Year’s resolutions, actually. I make birthday resolutions, a plan for the coming year that begins and ends with, you know, me (as in, “it’s all about me”). When I heard about a twist on the resolution thing, choosing just one word, rather than making one list, to focus on in 2011, I was interested. One word? That seems much easier to remember and actually do than one list. But what word? “Focus” was the first one that came to mind…then about a billion other words joined it. It wasn’t pretty.

One of my goals for 2011 is “REDUCE” … as in CLUTTER (and WEIGHT, too, come to think of it, and TIME-WASTING…). Hmmm, I guess that might be a good word…it just sounds so negative, though.  Guess I’ll think about it some more, maybe try on a few of those billion other words on for size to see which one is the best fit…maybe “DECIDE” should be my word? 🙂

If you’re interested in doing this too, here’s the website: myoneword.org.

I’d love to hear what words any of you choose if you decide to try it this year.