Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Fell off the wagon yesterday

Yesterday was a bad day in terms of my diet but I learned something.

I got around 6 hours of sleep the night before and so, was a little bit grumpy. Also, some things happened at work which made my mood worse and I was in a bad mood. I did go for my walk but when I got back, I was still in a bad mood and my sweet cravings hit me again. I caved and ate a bag of chocolate chip cookies. I was eating those cookies again after almost 10 days of resisting.

The interesting thing was I didn't feel better after eating them. In fact, I felt worse. By the time I got home, I felt nauseous.

From now on, I'm going to try to bring some fruits with me everyday to eat if I get a sweet craving.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Blogs on crafts for toddlers

One of my friends recently posted on Facebook about craft kits for kids and it gave me the idea of coming up with a list of blogs or articles about crafts for kids. Her son is around 3 - so I thought I'd make a list for toddlers.
  1. Gift of Curiosity:- This website has a lot of articles with ideas for toddlers and preschoolers in particular. She explains the activities very well with lots of photos and has printables available for free which we can download and use. 
  2. 1+1+1=1 :- This website has a lot of articles on homeschooling and parenting and also has printables for free.
  3. 3 Dinosaurs :- Has a lot of great suggestions for activities  for toddlers and preschoolers and tons of printables. 
  4. Toddler Approved :- As the name suggests, has a lot of suggestions for activities for toddlers
  5. Kids Activities Blog :- Again, the name is self-explanatory


Friday, June 20, 2014

Food for toddler teeth

I've recently been getting a little concerned with my toddler teeth. I'm not giving her a fluoride supplement and our water doesn't have fluoride. However, she drinks water at daycare and I don't know if that water has fluoride in it. This is something I need to bring up with my toddler's pediatrician/dentist. I'm yet to schedule a dentist appointment for her.

Regardless, I'm having some major food struggles with her and I came across this article on food choices for better toddler teeth.

The foods which were mentioned in the article are:

  • Cheese
  • Sweet potatoes
  • Oranges
  • Cranberries
  • Fresh or frozen cranberries
  • Apples
  • Water with fluoride (tap water)

Some meal/snack suggestions from this list:
  • Cheese kebabs with strawberries
  • Paneer Tikka Masala (go less on the spicy stuff but add flavor)
  • Sweet Potato Fries
  • Put pureed sweet potato in pancake or waffle batter
  • Steamed carrots or broccoli
  • Cranberry Bread or Muffins made with fresh or frozen cranberries
  • Oranges and apples slices

Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Hitting a bump in the road

After my high of Monday, yesterday was a big flop. I only hit 6500 steps - because I was only able to go for a 10 minute walk yesterday.

Yesterday, I also felt dizzy as I was having my lunch.Even though I didn't walk much yesterday, I felt very tired and bone-heavy and that feeling is continuing into today.

Today, I'm being a little more careful and eating sometime every 1-2 hours but still feeling very tired. As I was climbing the steps to get the 1st floor of my office, I could feel how difficult it was for me and I was out of breath when I climbed to the top.

I wonder if the exercise of the last week has caught up to me and I am feeling tired because of it or if there's some other reason for this.

I'm going to try to work through this and still try to hit my exercise goals.

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Highest Steps Ever!

For the last 2 weeks, I've been tracking my steps with a Fitbit Zip which I bought from Walmart. Yesterday was my highest step count ever! I hit 11699 steps! 

I was so proud of myself - I pushed myself a little bit yday and I'm so happy I did.

Monday, June 16, 2014

Weekly Health Update

Over the last two years, my health has declined a lot. After delivery of  my baby and breastfeeding and dealing with my daughter's allergies, I had lost a lot of weight - I weighed 107 pounds. But I was getting very less sleep and my health was in bad shape. I was falling sick a lot. I figured it was because of my restricted diet when I was breast feeding my daughter.

I stopped breastfeeding my daughter a year ago when she was around 10 months. After that, it was like no-holds-barred for me - I was eating everything I could and shouldn't. After some time, I controlled myself but still could not stop my sweet tooth and my milk/yogurt habit.

Now, fast-forward one year, I've put on 20 pounds and my health has deteriorated. According to my blood test results, my blood sugar has gone up, cholesterol has gone up and triglycerides has gone up. I haven't received my Vitamin D test results yet but am not expecting good news from that. I keep having aches and pains in my back and start huffing and puffing after some exertion. Because of less sleep and my daughter's clinging to me, I've been very stressed out as well.

I need to take some strict action to lose weight, exercise and eat more healthy. I'm decided to be more accountable for it. Every week, I will post on my exercise and food - what I did well and where I messed up. I'm going to start slow as I don't think I can go cold-turkey.

My goal is to try to hit 10000 steps per day. I'm going to try to walk at least 30 mins a day. I will try to eat salads at least 2-3 times a week. I will try to eat dessert only 2 times a week.

Thursday, June 12, 2014

Grocery store success trip!

Yesterday, I had my first ever grocery trip when I went with a shopping list, bought only the items on my list which was all fruits, vegetables and milk and got out. My bill came up to $25.

I was so proud!


Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Goals for 6/11 - 6/18

Here's an update on last week's goals and next week's goals.

Last week's Goals:

Home:

  1. Go to the library and pick up some books for Anjali
  2. Pay medical bills
  3. Make at least 2 updates on my daughter's memories book (Made 4 updates)
  4. Finish baby blanket I was making (no progress on this one)

Work:

  1. Learn about the competitor product and do some research into it (Did some work on this and now it's no longer a priority)
  2. Write at least 3 blog posts for my deals blog
  3. Write at least 3 blog posts for this blog

Personal:

  1. Read 2 chapters of Vicki Iovine's Girlfriend's guide to Toddlers
  2. Give blood test for yearly checkup
  3. Make Prasadham for temple (not able to get to this)

Goals for 6/11 - 6/18:

Home:
  1. Finish baby blanket I was making
  2. Make at least 2 updates on my daughter's memories book
  3. Switch out my daughter's toys with ones in the closet so she has some fresh toys to play with
  4. Clear and clean laundry room closet
  5. Finish a pet project for my daughter
  6. Call health insurance company and figure out medical bills
  7. Call pest control company to check on clearing out ant hills

Work:
  1. Brainstorm goals for next few months and outline of goals
  2. Write at least 3 blog posts for my deals blog
  3. Write at least 3 blog posts for this blog

Personal:
  1. Visit Indian Parlour
  2. Read 2 chapters of Vicki Iovine's Girlfriend's guide to Toddlers
  3. Make Prasadham for temple
  4. Go for 30 minute walk for at least 5 days

Memories of reading

I've always loved reading. I don't really remember how I got into it - my parents never really encouraged me to do it as I was living apart from them at the time and living with my grandparents and books were not really very accessible at that point in time in my life. I was probably in 4-5th grade when I got into reading in earnest.

The earliest memories I have of reading was reading some comics (Amar Chitra Katha, Archies, etc) in my school during one period which was designated for reading. Some books would be brought to the classroom and we could pick a book to read.

My other memory of reading is of getting ready to board a flight to go visit my parents with my sister and I was reading a comic while waiting to leave for the airport.

After that, the memories are stronger - when I moved to the Middle East to live with my parents, my school had a library. A small library to be sure, but a library which I didn't have access to before. Before the year was out, I had finished reading most of the books in the library. I would rent out a book a day and finish reading that book the very same day.

My mother was a teacher in another school which had a bigger library. I would go to that library with her and get books and read them too. I remember reading a huge book which was a compilation of all of Jane Austen's books.

I wish I had the time to read books like that now.

Sunday, June 8, 2014

Tomato plant

When we'd gone shopping a few weeks ago to get our plants, we had gotten a fully grown tomato plant in a pot from Home Depot.

As the days went by, the plant slowly started dying and we couldn't figure out why. The other plants we'd bought were fine and even the other tomato plant was fine. The leaves of the plant were turning yellow and starting to droop.

The condition of the plant was getting worse and we thought that we had just wasted $15. But I happened to be talking to my friend one day about this plant and she told me that Home Depot has a 1 year warranty on plants and that we could take it back to the store and return it or exchange it.

Luckily, Home Depot had emailed me the receipt and I was able to dig it up in my email. We took the receipt and plant to the store and were able to return it. We bought another tomato plant - a different variety. Now we just have to wait and see how it does.

Friday, June 6, 2014

Toddler Favorites

My daughter, who is 22 months old now, is very active and her personality's really coming out now. Her favorite word is "Noooooo!", of course as with all toddlers. 

She's really into reading books right now. She loves bringing me books and saying "Book" and plopping down in my lap. Her favorite nighttime books are currently "Goodnight Moon", "Time to Bed", "Goodnight Gorilla" and the "The Sleepy Little Alphabet". At other times during the day, she loves reading "Bear says Thank You" and "Barnyard Dance". 

Her favorite toys right now are her dolls. She calls them "babies". She loves feeling them du-du (milk) and putting her to sleep on mats (pillow) and covering them with a baby blankieShe also loves playing with her teapot and pouring into cups. 

She loves watching Barney videos and listening to Barney songs. Her favorite songs right now are "Pop goes the weasel", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", "Five little monkeys", "ABCD..", "I love you, you love me" and "Tap Tap". She likes so many songs it's hard to list them all out but these are her favorites right now. 

(This post contains some affiliate links)

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

My Cilantro plant



My cilantro plant has grown like a monster and is now tall and thick. Unfortunately, I think I made a mistake it letting it grow so tall without cutting it frequently.

As I learnt from reading this article How to harvest cilantro, I learnt that you need to harvest frequently and most of the growth is good only in the early spring or early fall as it required moist and cool temperatures. Also, I should probably plant some cilantro seeds soon as my plant will probably start bolting soon.

This weekend I plan to plant some cilantro seeds and hope that it germinates before this plant starts bolting.

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Goals for this week 6/4 - 6/10

This is my first post on a series of weekly posts I'm hoping to maintain. My inspiration is from Money Saving Mom and I would like to do weekly posts on my goals for the week and next week, be publicly accountable for how I did on those goals.

Like MSM, I will split my goals into 3 broad categories - Work, Home, Personal.

Work is going to include any work projects I have, professional growth, any pet projects I have like my deals blog.

Home is going to include home-making, being a good mother and my relationships.

Personal is just all about me - my personal growth, books I want to read, projects I want to do, stuff I want to do for myself.

Though I hope I can meet my goals every week, life will sometimes get in the way. I'm going to start out slow and hopefully pick up steam as I get better at meeting my goals.

Home:

  1. Go to the library and pick up some books for Anjali
  2. Pay medical bills (have been putting this one off)
  3. Post at least 2 updates on my daughter's memories blog
  4. Finish baby blanket I was making

Work:

  1. Learn about the competitor product and do some research into it
  2. Write at least 3 blog posts for my deals blog
  3. Write at least 3 blog posts for this blog


Personal:

  1. Read 2 chapters of Vicki Iovine's Girlfriend's guide to Toddlers
  2. Give blood test for yearly checkup
  3. Make Prasadham for temple



Experience with Panera Bread

I've always loved going to Panera Bread and in the last year, with a Panera Bread opening near my office, I've been going to Panera Bread quite often - whenever I forget to get lunch from home or if there's no food at home.

Recently, I stopped by Panera Bread to pick up some breakfast. I was in a hurry and I love their souffles - so thought I'd get one. I ordered it on my phone through their iOS app.

I went to pick it up and it was not there in the Rapid Pickup area. I asked some of the cashiers there and they weren't sure. They asked me what was my order and I told them it was a "Spinach and Artichoke souffle" and they got me the bag and said that they did not keep it in the rapid pickup because of food allergies. I said ok and I left.

10 minutes later, I took a bite and spit it out. They had given me a souffle with meat in it. I am a vegetarian and was quite upset with this. I hadn't expected this from Panera Bread. Not only was I hungry, I had a bad taste in my mouth from the meat.

I called up Panera Bread and complained to the manager on the phone. He did apologize and offer to give me my next 2 meals free and refund my souffle order if I could bring the receipt in next time I came in.

I will update on if they actually follow through.

Monday, June 2, 2014

Croquet

Over memorial day weekend, I had gone to a friend's house where we played Croquet in the backyard. It was so much fun and felt like a version of cricket.

Croquet is a lawn game played with mallets and plastic balls. In the version we played, you use the mallet to hit the ball through hoops and wind through an 8 shape around the lawn and get back to the starting point. There were 7 of us but only 6 players were possible so I played only one game since I had to take care of my daughter as well.

My daughter had so much fun with the game too - she kept using the mallets as a push toy and pretended it was a lawn mower.

I believe the game we used was this one.

Slid off again!

The last few weeks have been extremely busy and I have not spent much time on the computer at all. So I have not been blogging much - hope t...

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