THM: The end of Week 1

     Week 1 will be short, just 6 days, so I can have my weeks start on Mondays instead of Tuesdays. So how did my first THM week go? I feel good, slept 9 hours straight through last night (only done that a handful of times in my life), I've lost about 4 pounds, a lot of the mid-section bloating is gone, and I haven't been hungry at all this whole time.
     What have I had to eat?  I've had healthier versions of the following foods, but all of them tasted great and only took about 5 minutes to make:

Frosted Cinnamon Muffins

Fajitas

Pizza with extra cheese, artichoke, and turkey bacon

Chili

Steak topped salad with bleu cheese dressing

sandwich with meat and veggies 

Lemon cake & white cake with a cream cheese frosting

Pancakes and Chocolate Waffles

Omelettes with cheese and meat and veggies

Asian dishes with noodles, meat, and veggies

Chicken alfredo

Blueberry & Strawberry muffins

Thick chocolate shakes

Fantastic tea concoctions to sip on all day

Are you ready to try Trim Healthy Mama yet? 

     I'm so looking forward to Week 2! I'll use lots of cookbook recipes, but now that I have the hang of it, I'll also be using up food around the house like meats, refrigerated items, and pantry items, so nothing gets wasted.  

     Life is good and happy again - if you decide to try it, please comment or message me back so I know and can encourage you on your own journey.

Days 4 & 5

     Day 4 was great again. Breakfast was a chocolate waffle with strawberries. The recipe made more than I could eat, so I gave some to my daughter. She said, "well, it does taste healthy, but it's still good." She's super picky these days (as an adult) so coming from her, that's pretty good. Breakfast was late so I had no morning snack. Lunch was some rotisserie chicken left over from the night before, with lettuce, mayo (which I spiced up with horseradish and spices) in a low carb tortilla. I liked that it was quick and easy. I've got the time to make the recipes in the cookbook, most take only 5 minutes to put together, but sometimes I just don't feel like it. Anyway, my afternoon snack was a frosted cinnamon muffin - tasty, and done in under 5 minutes. I substituted vanilla extract for the lemon juice in the frosting and now it was smooth instead of clumpy and looking all separated. Supper was a quick White Chili.  It was just stuff I keep on hand anyway - 2 cans of white beans, a can of rotel (tomatoes with chilis), a can of diced tomatoes, I chose to add 2 jalapenos w/o the seeds, and the last of the rotisserie chicken. That's it. Once it was heated through, it was done, quick, easy, and tasty. 

     I notice that this is the first time I've been on an eating plan that I'm not hungry. I mean not even a little bit. Sometimes I spend a good 10 minutes deciding on a snack because I'm not really hungry, but know not to let my blood sugar drop, then spike later. In fact, I've felt so satisfied that I started to wonder about portion sizes. There's no rules, and most of the recipes say "single serve", but still...

     Day 5 was another easy day. I started with a microwaved blueberry muffin that's done start to finish in 5 minutes. Lunch was roast beef, turkey bacon, lettuce, mayo (a very thin layer, literally only about 1/2 Tbs., a drop of horseradish, on 2 slices of Ezekiel naturally sprouted bread. It was just a sandwich, no cheese though since this was an E meal (energizing/carbs but low fat), but I stayed full all afternoon.

     It's time for my afternoon snack and I'm truly not hungry, so I reached for a small Fuel Pull (FP) recipe - one with so little carbs and fats centered on a protein that it doesn't affect your body like an E or S meal would. I found a quick chocolate shake in the cookbook. I'm not a fan of chocolate - I don't like chocolate cake, most candy bars, chocolate ice cream, I barely like Boston Cream donuts, brownies, and chocolate chip cookies - but I gave it a try. Let me start by saying, this is HEALTHY - It has in it frozen okra! and protein whey powder, and plain gelatin, and date palm oil, but it also has vanilla, unsweetened cocoa powder, and Stevia. Expecting to have an awfully healthy taste, I was shocked it was so good! I'm not an okra fan to start with - but this is thick, creamy, tastes like chocolate ice cream with maybe a scoop of malt in it, or mixed with a little chocolate frozen yogurt. But it doesn't taste thin and artificial - it tastes really rich and good. You have to try it if you decide on the THM plan!

     Supper tonight will be an E meal. I have some turkey cutlets to use up and 3 or 4 mouths to feed, so I'm making a (turkey) chicken alfredo over noodles. The only difference is when everyone else has regular pasta, which around here are usually quinoa noodles anyway, I'll have noodles made from the konjac root. They have no calories, no carbs, no fats, but lots of fiber. They're Japanese noodles that have been around for years in Asia, but not here. Usually they're packaged in briny fish-smelling liquid, like we package hot dogs, but THM sells them packaged in a much cleaner, non-fishy smelling water. I tried them in a homemade Ramen type of dish before starting the plan and I loved them. They're chewy like al dente pasta should be, not gummy like American pasta. 

     I can't imagine NOT eating on a plan like this long term. It's healthy, tastes good, easy, quick, makes sense, heals things along the way, and I'll also drop either weight, inches, or both?!  I would recommend it to everyone!

Day 3

     I think after the first week, I'll probably only post when something new comes up, or once a week, whichever comes first.

     Day 2's supper, Egg Roll in a Bowl, was GREAT! I wanted to share with Jordan (and Logan, as it turned out), so instead of ground beef, chicken or turkey, I used MorningStar Farms (soy) meatless Crumbles. I know, there's a lot of talk about soy and GMOs these days, but Jordan is allergic to ALL meats, broths, fish, seafood, and she has to eat something besides a ton of dairy and beans for her protein. Anyway, I used crumbles. Instead of shredding cabbage, the cookbook recommended having a bag of cole slaw mix instead, which would include some shredded carrot too. It was so easy! What I made fed 3 of us easily, and could've stretched for 4 over rice or stir fried vegetables. Everyone thought it was great. I'll definitely be making that again.

     The evening snack was a white cake with vanilla frosting, but my frosting is clumpy, almost like it's separated. I have to figure out if it's just that I don't whip it enough, or something else. It's basically lowfat cream cheese, butter, sweetener, and vanilla - it tastes great but looks "wrong". I'll have to figure that out - I bet I can find a video on THM's website that shows how so I can see what I'm missing, but again, it still tastes good.

     Day 3, today, I had eggs with cheese and turkey bacon. I made another Trimmer (all day sipper drink), but left out the cayenne, since it's on my list of foods I have sensitivities to. I wanted to use chili powder but I'm all out until this weekend, so I just left it out. Understanding the plan, I can make a similar drink with coffee, sweetener, almond milk, and vanilla - or use herbal tea instead of black tea (on my Alcat once or twice a week list). The cookbook has other recipes too, and the video on THM's site says to experiment with different teas, extracts, add cocoa powder for a chocolate flavor, etc. There are no rules, just avoid combining high carbs with high fats. That's it.

     Lunch could be as simple as a can of Progresso Light soup, but instead, I cooked a small, thin, leftover turkey cutlet (maybe 3 oz), then put it over a salad with lettuce, tomato, blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, and heaping tablespoon of lowfat cottage cheese - no dressing needed with the moisture from the other ingredients. It was so tasty, really easy, and even very inexpensive since berries are in season here.

     Supper will be a bit early and then I'll probably make an evening snack, rather than an afternoon snack and a late, heavier supper. I plan on having rotisserie chicken, with broccoli and maybe a salad if I feel like it. If I want it to be an E meal (carbs but low in fats), I can keep it just like it is. If I want to turn it into an S meal (fats but low carbs), I can eat the same thing, but add butter or cheese sauce to the broccoli, or have peas in a parmesan sauce, and have creamy dressing on my salad. I'll decide at mealtime. That's the beauty of this - at any meal or snack, I get to choose which way to go. There's no set order to have them, just make them one way or the other. Occasionally they have what they call a Fuel Pull, which seems to incluce both fats and carbs, just low amounts of each around a good protein. I plan on reading more into those.

     I'm looking forward to dessert. I'm planning on a single serve sized Pineapple Upside Down cake. I can't wait. This is really a much more enjoyable way to eat than any other program I've tried - no drinking shakes twice a day, no expensive prepackaged box meals on auto-ship, no totally gluten-free rules, no Atkins style carb restrictions (I love my fruit!).  If you're considering it, just do it. You'll enjoy the food freedom it brings.

THM - Day 2

     Yesterday I posted how I started a new way of eating called Trim Healthy Mama. I thought I'd check in to let you know how my first day went. Normally on the first day of any program, I do okay, eat something I forgot I wasn't supposed to, or else I've figured out everything I won't get to have for a while. Can you relate? The thought of never having an entire food group forever would make me start second guessing my decision to start something new - but this time, this really does seem like something I can live with.
     Breakfast was a quick frosted cinnamon muffin that had the consistency of a cake. It was great. It kept me full until lunch time, too.
     Lunch was a salad topped with a tiny NY Strip steak I found at the store on sale. I of course used creamy bleu cheese dressing over my lettuce & tomatoes. I added just a few berries for sweetness, and I was really full. The actual portion size was only about 4 oz of meat and barely 3 romaine leaves with only 1/2 a tomato. Such a filling meal. That must be why they call it an "S" meal, which stands for satisfying.
     The plan strongly recommends that you try to eat about every 3 hours, give or take, to keep your blood sugar levels steady. When they drop and spike all day from not eating, then overeating, that's when we start to mess up our bodies efficiency. For my afternoon snack, I felt like I was craving sugary carbs, so I found an easy recipe for a microwavable lemon cake with frosting. It took just a few minutes to mix, under 2 minutes to cook, and in 5 minutes I had a great snack to fix those cravings. I will say it's easy to tweak these recipes if you need to. In an earlier post I discussed my food sensitivity test and list. I can't have coconut oil so I had a choice to use either red palm oil or just butter. I chose the oil just to see how it would taste baked out. It was a very tangy lemon cake (I put the maximum lemon, not the minimum) and I think part of it was the red palm flavor too. I loved it, I'll definitely be making it again, and next time I'll try the butter version.
     For supper, I was still "satisfied", not hungry, not stuffed, just satisfied. I postponed supper until the very last part of that 3 hour window. I decided to have the beef roast I made in the crock pot. I needed to cook it and the guys needed to eat too. I put it in a bowl, melted some cheese over it, then added some brown gravy over it. It was a little bowl of yumminess! I needed some non-starchy vegetables with it but was simply too full for anything but that small bowl - so I used Romaine lettuce leaves as a sort of taco and ate it that way.
     The cookbook has recipes for small desserts that you can follow supper with, like mini frappes, but I was done for the day. I also had an "all day sipper", like a homemade chai, to sip on all day too.
     Day 1 - delicious, easy, healthy, satisfying, filling, so happy with this new plan.

     Day 2 started with an "E" meal, for "energyzing" - here's the healthy carbs.  I had old-fashioned oatmeal, not the quick or instant oats, because the older type is healthier and mine is gluten-free. I had just half a cup with a few pieces of fruit cut up in it, a little almond milk, no sweetener. I also had an Oikos Triple Zero Greek yogurt cup - no calories, no fat, made with Stevia instead of sugar or fake substitutes.
     Because my day started at early, breakfast was around 6. By 9 AM I wasn't overly hungry, but I knew I needed a snack. I pulled out the cookbook for ideas, but decided a couple of eggs with cheese and about one ounce of leftover roast would be more than enough.
     Lunchtime I was actually hungry, but not ravenous. It was strange. It was very different from when I normally feel hungry. This was more of a hollow, non-bloated, not tired kind of run down feeling (like a carb crash from the previous meal). I felt healthy, but like my body had efficiently used up what I'd previously eaten. I ended up getting home later than planned so it was almost 4 hours before eating. Not too bad. What I made was another recipe from the cookbook. I had homemade tomato soup that took me one minute to make, and just a few more to heat on the stove (I could've microwaved it, I guess). The book recommended half a low carb pita, opened and split, and used for a half sized grilled cheese. I've been to 3 stores so far and no one has low carb PITAs, just wraps/tortillas & breads. I improvised easily by using half of a low carb (small size) tortilla, and with the cheese in the middle, it was like having 1/4 of a cheese quesadilla. Pretty satisfying so I don't miss out on the usual number of carbs.
     Tonight I'll make a recipe called Egg Roll in a Bowl - sounds like fun. I need to be in bed before 6 PM to take my daughter to work at 2 AM, so I probably won't be having my snack. I'll just plan to make it some other day this week. It's a single serve sized white cake with frosting. Now THAT'S an eating plan I can live with!

     One last note, my all day sipper called The Shrinker has cayenne pepper in it. I love the taste but I could tell something I'd eaten must've been on my Alcat sensitivity foods list. Sure enough, cayenne should be removed from my diet. So how hard is it to alter the recipe and continue enjoying it? I just switch to chili pepper and I'm good to go - I have no sensitivities to chilis. So even if you have allergies or situations where you can't have gluten, or meat, or seafood, or dairy - you can still easily alter this and do it.

Trim Healthy Mama - Day 1

   

     Today is the first  official day of eating using the Trim Healthy Mama plan & cookbook. I heard about it through my cousin's wife who lives way up in Alaska, and she looks great every time I see photos of her. I bought the Plan book and the cookbook. When they came in I started reading immediately.
     The first thing that got my attention was that both authors had been through what I'd been through:  trying every plan out there - Atkins, Low Carb, Fat Free, Jenny Craig/Weight Watchers/NutriSystem programs, Vegetarianism, Vegan, Raw only, etc. and they didn't get results either. Come to think of it, almost all the women I know have tried so many of these with no luck, either! The gym thing? Yeah, I think being healthy and fit is important, but when you've spent 90min. to 2 hours a day, 5 days a week, up at 4:30 am, just to get to the gym and do both weights and cardio - and all you lose in 6 months is TWO POUNDS and never really dropped a size - why bother?! Something else had to be going on.
     These two ladies have figured out that a better way to help your body use what you eat the way it was meant to is to follow a sort of food pairing program. This was something that came and went in the late 90s, early 00s, but being Americans, we rejected it. We like our steak and potatoes, burgers and fries, hot dogs and potato chips, chili with all the toppings, etc. What THM's plan says, is to start with your protein - lean meat, red meat, fish, poultry, whey protein, etc. Then you either add fats to your fattier proteins, or else add carbs to your leaner protein. Just don't mix fats and carbs. That's basically it in a nutshell.  You can even pick which way you want to go with it at each meal or snack, no rules.
     The plan book and cookbook make it easy, it just takes a little bit of thought in the first week or so, then it gets easier and second nature. I didn't start until today because I knew I had a few things like a planned dinner out, snacks at a movie, a birthday party, and a tea with friends, that I had to get through first. I also ordered a few of the THM convenience products off their site, like the baking mix and sweetener. While waiting for today, I spent about a week eating the way I would if I'd already started - matching lean proteins with carbs and fattier proteins like red meat and ground beef with my fats. Know what happened? I dropped a size, lost a lot of the muffin-top bloating I'd struggled with for a year, and lost about 5 pounds - without really trying! I'm so excited to do this!
     The best part is that this plan really is something I can see myself doing forever, since it never has you count calories, or grams of anything (although they give slight guidelines for OCD people like me), you aren't told what your portion sizes are, just rough ideas. As they put it, "If we tell you that then it's OUR eating program. You decide what's right for you because it's YOUR eating plan."  No entire group of foods are off limits - like no carbs, or has to be gluten-free, or never eat fruits, in fact the only thing they really recommend is getting off the sugars and switch to either Stevia, or a blend with Stevia you can either purchase at a health food store or through them. They even created typical menus based on lifestyle, whether you're a busy, working Mom who usually hits the drive thru, or a purist who only eats organics, or a Mom who must budget for a large family. Total flexibility.
     As my first day, let me share with you my first meal. It took 5 min. to make, and just 15 min. in the oven (or I could've chosen to microwave it). It's a Frosted Cinnamon Muffin (cookbook recipe) and an "all day sipper" drink that helps you lose all day. It tastes like homemade chai, it's amazingly good. Here's my photo:

     It tasted so good! The muffin had the consistency of a cake, tasting sort of like a cross between maybe a sweet bran muffin and carrot cake? The cream cheese frosting was good too, but next time I'd take the time to blend or maybe even melt the cream cheese. The drink I made a few days ago for the first time. Everyone in the house tried it and loved it too. The strangest thing about the muffin was that I expected to use the THM baking mix for my flour, but it only used 3T of ground flaxseed meal, which I actually already had in the house. That's why of all the breakfast items I could've chosen, I thought I'd try this. Quick, easy, super-moist, healthy, and so filling that I skipped the 1/2 Triple Zero Greek yogurt that could've been paired with this. Can't wait to see how lunch goes. 

     

   

Food Intolerances & the ALCAT test

   I recently had an Alcat Test done by my doctor. It doesn't test for food allergies, but it does test for food intolerances. The difference is that an allergy is instant, your throat closes, or you break out in a rash, it's immediate and can be life-threatening. An intolerance is harder to catch. It's when you eat something that your body can't process correctly and it causes all kinds of troubles at the cellular level, but you don't feel the effects until 3 to 5 days later. For example, you get a migraine, but don't realize it's because you ate something bad for your body 4 days ago. The hard part is, the foods they test for are generally thought to be "healthy foods", and they are, but not for you personally.

   My results weren't too bad. There's only about 11 things I have a really bad internal reaction to: basil, bananas, cantaloupe, cauliflower, coconut (incl. coconut milk and coconut oil), cucumbers, grapes (including wine), lentils, pears, zucchini, and olive (including olive oil). You'd be surprised just how many recipes call for these ingredients when you eat healthy! But of all the healthy foods on the planet, 11 isn't so bad. I was eating basil almost every meal, olive & coconut oil were my only oils to cook with, and who doesn't love organic bananas?

   The next section of results are foods that I should eliminate for 90 days, then add back into my diet, one at a time, and not more than once every 4 days. If I do that, I'll either develop a super sensitivity to it and know to get rid of it, or else I'll be able to add it back into my diet permanently as long as it's only once every 4 days, so I don't build up too much in my system. I have a fairly long list of those items, about 35 foods. Most aren't a big deal because I almost never eat them, but others may only have ended up here because I was eating them almost every day - like apples, bell peppers, green tea, cumin, kale, quinoa, beets, and wild rice. All healthy foods, I probably just need to not have them so often.

   I'm almost a month into this. I haven't been 100% faithful to dropping the 35 foods, sometimes there's no substitute available in the house. I've had a bit of oregano, something that had cocoa in it, etc, but I have eliminated the bad 11 foods 100%. After just about 30 days, here's my results:

   Many of you know, I've had insomnia my whole life. I was lucky to get about 2 years of a supplement that worked wonders, but the company stopped making it a few years ago with no substitute. It was a very unique blend. I wake up after just 2 hours, then up for hours, then sleep/wake up about every half hour til it's time to get up.  In the last 30 days, I've found I sleep 6 to 7 hours a night, straight through, 5 out of 7 nights a week. If I got nothing else out of this, sleeping is worth it.

   I also have been struggling for about 3 years now with just not feeling right. Do you know what I mean? Nothing's wrong. You aren't sick or coming down with anything, You just don't feel "good". There's no waking up thinking that today is already going to be a great day. You just kind of go through the motions every day sort of in a fog.  In the last 30 days, I wake up almost every single day now feeling great, feeling happy, with a clear head, and looking forward to every day. That started IMMEDIATELY after dropping those 11 bad foods.

   Another odd surprise was that my resting heart rate was around 80 - 85 bpm, and I always felt it was too fast, even when just sitting down, not stressed. Now it averages around 70 when I'm ACTIVE and at rest, it's in the low 60s. That in turn drops my blood pressure, something I've struggled with for about 10 years now. If it spikes, it takes forever to come back down - but now it's averaging a little better than the goal of 120/80.

   My body will not drop weight. End of story. I've tried smaller meals, eating healthy, exercise, going to the gym, shakes, supplements, all of it. Nothing works, ever.  Since Christmas, I'm down about 10 pounds, with most of it coming in the last 30 days. I'm not sure that'll keep up or my body will adjust and stop losing, but for now, it's working.

   I noticed at an event recently that I have a lot more endurance and it takes a lot more to get to the "out of breath" stage. That's a plus since my goals don't involve a number on the scale, they involve overall health improvement - stamina, endurance, flexibility, energy, strength, etc.

   I was falling asleep (or close to it) around 3:00 every afternoon. Now I don't get tired AT ALL!
I'm able to do more than before and still not run out of steam until bedtime, and then I fall asleep almost immediately.

   The last thing, which is really important is that for as long as I can remember (since I was about 3) I have lived in a constant state of stress. I have the knots in my shoulders to prove it - which I wore like earrings for my whole life - always raised up and not relaxed. In the last 90 days, I have been more relaxed than ever before. I FEEL more at peace. I don't have the same sudden out-of-nowhere outbursts (even if they are in my head) when people cut me off in traffic, or they say/do something stupid, or something goes wrong. I just roll through it without the stress now.

   Overall, I can already see that the Alcat test was worth doing. The dietary changes are worth the effort. I would HIGHLY recommend checking to see if your insurance covers it. You can have it done (they take 6 tubes of blood, results are back in 2 weeks) as a small, medium, or large test, depending on insurance coverage and what you're willing to spend. You can test anywhere from 50 to 200 foods,
functional foods/medicinal herbs, male herbs/female herbs, 20 food additives & colorings, 21 molds, and 10 environmental chemicals. We happen to have Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield out of Wisconsin, and they covered the entire test, all groups, a $1200 test, 100%.  You never know, yours just might cover it. One word of advice...since most PCPs don't understand nutrition, only prescriptions, you may need to have a different type of doctor order the tests. I used my Chiropractor because she's big into natural healing of the body and eating right. It doesn't have to be a naturopath, since insurance doesn't cover their services. Just find one that understands foods and their link to health.

   Good luck and I hope you find better health for yourself! I'll report back after 60 and 90 days, then as I add things back in.
 

2016

   Top 10 things I'm looking forward to in 2016:

1.  Hoping to have a day to spend with my family in New England next summer
     I may only have one day to see them, but I'm trying to make a short trip work.

2.  Hoping to take a cruise with Tim in the fall. We're planning on going out of Galveston, TX
     and see Cozumel, Jamaica, and Grand Cayman.

3.  I just started a new small group of women that will be meeting once a week. It'll be a small
     circle of friendship, support, fun, and more. I have such a heart for Women's Ministry.

4.  I plan on infusing my 2016 with more JOY. That means more friends, interacting with my
     family more often, seeing new things, experiencing new places, and spending less time home.

5.  I plan on improving my health in 2016. Better foods, more exercise, trying new things.

6.  Being a weekend season ticket holder at our MLB team's games.

7.  Being more creative - through photographs. I'm going to get better at Instagram, more often.

8.  Jordan graduates high school this spring!

9.  Jordan begins college this fall!

10.  Jordan will get her license this year.

   

FALL is here!

   
     I never liked fall when I lived in New England. Yes, of course, I loved watching all the leaves turn colors, and the cool, crisp air that comes with it, but still...everything would die. Everything turned muddy, too cold too quickly, brown was the main color on the ground, in the trees (once the harsh winds blew all those pretty leaves off), and even the sky gets less colorful as summer fades. The memories of summer beach days and pool parties were fading. The worst was the nights - they get SO cold, so fast! You go from shorts and t-shirts to needing bulky coats and shoes with more coverage from the rain, wind, cold and mud. It was time to put away the motorcycles for another year, and forget about boating til late spring.

     Then I moved to Arizona and that all changed!

     Now when fall comes, it's a wonderful event! The days aren't quite so hot, with daytime temps under 100 now. The early mornings are usually around the mid-80s so you get more motivated to get up early and get your outside errands done. The car isn't hot enough to bake cookies (or your hands on the steering wheel) anymore.

     We don't have typical trees full of sugary sap that makes their leaves change colors. Most of our trees are palm trees, citrus trees (that hold green leaves year-round), a few evergreen trees, which I've always felt were out of place here, and some shrub type trees used for landscaping.

     Although we don't have colors blooming on our trees, we do have colors blooming elsewhere.  Fall is when many flowers are able to bloom again now that it's not too hot.  Our normally green prickly pear cactus turns a pretty purple color once the nights are cold.

     The Phoenix Zoo's rose garden is amazing during the fall! All kinds of roses in different sizes, shapes, colors, and hues.

     The fall sky here is something we wait for here too. Because of the monsoon season and dust storms that come in until early fall, the sky that can be pretty all year, really comes alive with beautiful sunsets in reds, golds, oranges, blues, and purples. They're the prettiest sunsets all year. I always look forward to them.

     Fall means it's cool enough to start adding more outdoor activities to our schedules. Just like in colder states where you stay in for the harshest winter months, we stay in as much as possible during our harshest summer months. In the fall, people start walking, riding bikes, hiking trails, and even mountain climbing since there's so many here to pick from.

 

   We have pumpkin and chili festivals just like the rest of the country. We celebrate fall with apples, squash, pumpkins, cinnamon, cider, and other fall flavors. The only difference between our Thanksgiving and that found elsewhere is that ours is often held outside in back yards and on patios. I remember the first time my in-laws came to AZ for a holiday meal (it may have been Christmas), we ate outdoors. It was so strange they said. We love being outdoors in the fall (and winter) here.

     It's time for us to pull out our crock pots, chili and soup recipes, and find local pumpkin festivals to visit on the weekends. It's time to find new walking trails, and find restaurants with outdoor seating.

   
     I'll end with my absolute favorite thing about fall here in AZ, it's the Arizona Fall League baseball!

It's where all the teams send their best AAA, AA, and international prospects to see what they can do. They combine prospects across baseball to form 6 teams, each representing 5 MLB teams each. We buy a pass that retails for about $120 (although we get it deeply discounted) and that allows 6 people to every single game, and there's 3 a day, Monday through Saturday, free parking, open seating - yes, we sit 1st row behind the dugout - and includes admission to their Homerun batting challenge, mid-season All Star Game (the best prospects are showcased), and even the final World Series type championship between the 2 best teams. The best part, as if that's not enough, is that only about 700 - 800 people show up per game, instead of 30,000 - so you can get lots of autographs, photos with the players, and even get to know a few of them. It's the best 6 weeks for minor leagues.

What's YOUR favorite part of fall?

Effort

     Effort is described as a vigorous or determined attempt.  I remember growing up hearing how important effort was. I was told that effort was required in doing chores around the house, doing my schoolwork, doing homework, learning something new, working on the job, it was expected everywhere, in everything I did. So what changed with our society?

     Over the last two decades or so, effort has become a bad word. People have become very lazy and content with sub-par work. I don't get it. How can a student be told he or she did a bad job at say, doing a school assignment, given a chance to redo it for a better (and sometimes just a passing) grade, and the student shrugs his or her shoulders and says, "Nah, that's okay." and walks off?!!!  How can they just not care whether they pass, fail, or never complete something? 

     How does an employee get called into the boss' office to be told he didn't do the job right, and they simply say, "okay" and leave without fixing it? 

     How does a family member be told to do something to help out the family, and she just never bothers to do it? 

     What happens at that moment when a person has the chance to choose to make things right, or to just give up and walk away failing to do what has been asked? What thought process happens/doesn't happen to make someone walk off content with never doing things well?  
     

     What can we do today to teach those we're responsible for to do the right thing and give their best effort? I believe it starts with accountability. Hold them to a standard, hold them accountable for their actions, or lack of actions. Whether it's your children, students, employees, or whatever the situation, we need to become part of the solution - not part of the problem.

     If more people were held accountable for their effort, things would change. Imagine if the chores weren't done around the house, so the child actually lost privileges like in the old days? Maybe it's a few days without their cell phone? It could be no computer time, or not getting to drive the family car.  If there was something to lose, perhaps the child would give more effort to do what was EXPECTED of him or her.

     What if you have students who don't do their work, and don't pass the tests, and don't care if they pass or fail?  Perhaps working something out with the parents would change a bad attitude. Maybe have the student stay after long enough to miss the bus and have to walk home (with the parents agreeing not to pick them up either)? Or maybe the student has to eat their lunch in a separate class and work on assignments for the lunch time? Or what if the student has to maintain a particular grade average to be allowed to participate in certain groups, clubs, or even field trips? There are things that matter that could become rewards for effort rather than expected free gifts just handed out, regardless of effort put forth.

     On the job site, I may be very old-school on this, but I believe if you don't give your best effort, you're showing you don't want nor care about the job - and it should be given to someone else who IS willing to do their best.  If you're habitually late, you should be docked from your pay, and after 3 times, fired. If you constantly call in sick without extenuating, serious situations, you should be fired and replaced by someone who wants to come to work and earn that paycheck day after day.  If you don't do your work at an acceptable level of competency, speed, and accuracy, you should seek more training to improve, not wait for a boss to offer it. They have better things to do than monitor every single employee's daily attitude. If you don't care enough to improve, you should be replaced by someone who provides a daily effort to improve and do the job well. 

     Effort is the opposite of laziness. If you aren't willing to give your best effort to things, there should be consequences.  Laziness should carry uncomfortable or disappointing consequences so that effort is rewarded. 

     Let's stop allowing society to grow lazier and careless. Stand up and let those you're in charge of that you now carry expectations on them, on their effort, that a lack of effort will no longer be accepted. If we all started doing this, our young adults, graduates, and employees would turn this nation around so we could once again be known as hard-working Americans.

I love when Italians rub off on me!

   

     Ever since I returned from New England, I've been on a cooking kick. I love to cook anyway, but this is above and beyond my "normal" amount of cooking - especially in the summer heat. I didn't realize it at first, but I spent 13 of the 14 days surrounded by Italians, or in their homes, or eating in an Italian restaurant. I absolutely loved it. It felt like "home", even though I'm not actually Italian. I must have some Italian blood in my somewhere! I've always felt at home among the Italian families and neighborhoods growing up.

     In the last week, I've made so many home cooked meals, I've lost track. I made a Shepherd's Pie tonight (which is traditionally Scottish, made with lamb), but I made it with a mix of ground beef and veal, adding sauteed onions, mushrooms, and garlic. I made a vegetarian version for my daughter that also had red & green peppers, shredded carrots, and peas. I topped both of them with sauteed corn (organic of course), and finished them with homemade mashed potatoes, which I mashed by hand. No hand mixer tonight. I can't tell you how good they both came out, but I know I'll be making this again really soon - just in larger batches!

   







      I bought the ingredients to make an authentic chicken parmigiana tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. I made sauce this week to go over some goat cheese and roasted pepper ravioli, topped with a dollop of mascarpone cheese. The sauce cooked for over four hours and what a difference time makes! It was so good that I'll be making more for the chicken parm. tomorrow.


     Just to mix it up, I'm going to make an authentic Mexican dish this week too. I'll make chicken (and cheese-filled for my little vegetarian) enchiladas, in a homemade salsa verde, topped with Mexican crema, along with Mexican rice, and homemade refried beans - not from a can, from loose pinto beans). I love cooking so I'm looking forward to making things I've never cooked before - like tomatillos.

     Oh yeah, and while we're on the topic of Mexican food, I also made tacos this past week but instead of putting the meat and things in a tortilla or a shell, we used jicama slices instead. I'd never had it before, but it tasted great. The crunchy texture was perfect and the barely there flavor was perfect, not overpowering anything else.

     Next week after all this I think I'll make some Asian dishes I've never done, like a Lo Mein, some chicken dumplings, and spring rolls.

Are you hungry yet?

Top 10 Things I did while on vacation this summer...

This summer I traveled to New England where I was born and raised. I visited the city of Boston, the suburbs of Peabody and Methuen in Massachusetts. I traveled to Salem, Portsmouth, Dover, Somersworth, Rochester, and Milton, New Hampshire. I also drove up the coastline from Salisbury Beach, through Seabrook, Hampton, North Hampton, and Rye Beaches. Here are my Top 10 things I did while on vacation (in no particular order):

1. I spent time with my family: grandmother, aunts, uncle, cousins, second cousins...including those that flew in from Florida and Texas.

2.  I got to meet my niece for the very first time!

3.  Met up with an aunt I hadn't seen in 21 years! She's still as sweet and beautiful as she was then.

4.  I went to a pizza party at my sister's in-laws' home they hosted for OUR family.

5.  I had lunch at Cheers with my daughter, and the out-of-town cousins from TX & FL.

6.  I got to see Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox! 

7.  I got to shop and have lunch at Quincy Market behind Faneuil Hall in Boston.

8.  I went to the New England Aquarium to see penguins, an octopus, sea turtles, sharks, jellyfish, and more!

9.  I spent a day with my dearest friends. Sue I've been friends with for almost 40 years. We spent most of the day with her, her husband Craig, and her two boys. Then we had dinner with Jen, who I've been friends with for about 17 years, and her daughter Shelby. Her son Nick couldn't make it.

10. Had a beach day. We had pizza at Salisbury Beach, MA, drove the coast up to Rye Beach, NH for a whale watch, then back to Hampton Beach, NH for shopping, sand & wading in the ocean, ate fried dough, and got matching henna tattoos.

I did so much, yet still had time to rest, spend time with the baby, go sightseeing in Boston to see the architecture, drive through the towns we used to live in, go to the malls, went to the top of the Prudential tower to see all of Boston (and Fenway), went to Dunkin' Donuts (of course), and go out to eat many times. It was exactly the right amount of time. I'm so proud of Jordan too. She handled flying, going on a boat, going into the Atlantic Ocean, took a bus, at "beach food", and met about 25 relatives - all for the very first time.