I am a fan of the traditional ice cream sandwich-vanilla ice cream, with chocolate cookies as bookends. The vanilla Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches are outstanding–unlike a lot of “lite” products, they are a decent size and don’t taste “lite”. I passed these out recently to my husband and my mom, and they both thought gave the vanilla Skinny Cow thumbs up.

The Skinny Cow website is full of information on healthy lifestyles, a downloadable walking journal, and the Weight Watchers points value for all products (they don’t make a dessert over 3 points! How great is that?). There’s even a “flavor finder” that can point you to a store that carries the product you crave.

Thanks to Mom Central for the opportunity to participate in this blog tour!

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1. School’s Out for Summer (almost)

Dr. Reiss explains that in addition to the above, a vital aspect of women’s health is her hormonal health. He goes into depth explaining the function of each of the main hormones in our bodies, and how deficiencies in any of these can seriously impact every function of the body. Dr. Reiss is an expert in using bioidentical hormones to improve all aspects a of woman’s health, and a good percentage of the book is dedicated to explaining the benefits of this course of treatment.

Bioidentical hormones, in case you were wondering, are different than the synthetic hormones found in birth control pills, fertility treatments, and menopausal treatments. While explaining the benefits of bioidentical hormones, Dr. Reiss outlines the dangers of synthetic hormones. In the Author’s Note at the beginning of the book, Dr. Reiss acknowledges that what he practices goes against conventional medicine, yet what he practice is backed up by reputable scientific sources. He urges women not to settle for treatments that don’t work and may actually cause harm, and to try the least invasive/most natural remedies first.

Two points also jumped out at me while I read the book:

1) The goal of Western medicine is to keep you alive. Not to keep you feeling your best, but to keep you alive. Therefore, a “normal” test result means that you don’t need any lifesaving treatment at this moment. It doesn’t mean that there isn’t something you could do to make yourself feel better (less fatigued, less cold, less prone to gain weight, whatever your ailment is).

2) Western medicine tends to treat the symptom, rather than the cause of any given symptom. In review of my own medical history, I can see it happening again and again. I was given pain killers for my back pain, but the root cause wasn’t investigated. I was given birth control pills for my irregular periods, but the root cause wasn’t investigated. I was suddenly plagued with ear infections when I was twenty years old–I even had ear surgery to correct it–but the root cause wasn’t investigated.

It sounds harsh I know, but the more I think about it, the more it makes sense to me. This knowledge puts a lot more of my family’s health care in my hands, and the Natural Superwoman is a great reference tool for just that.
this review is brought to you by Mother Talk

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Anyway, it’s Weigh-in Wednesday and I am where I was last week. Today is significant, however, because not only is is Weigh-In Wednesday, it’s also Ash Wednesday. Which means Lent is starting. Which means it’s an automatic back-on track day, because I’m fasting today. Which is good, and rather odd, because I haven’t been really hungry, whereas usually, I’m FAMISHED when people tell me I can’t eat (bloodwork, surgery, fasting for Church, whatever).

Last year I made a feeble attempt to give up eating between meals for Lent. I think I’m going to try it again this year–so far, I’m off to a great start. Maybe I should always plan a warm-weather vacation during Lent. It might be the extra motivator I need to really sacrifice for the season.

See how everyone else did at Tales from the Scales!

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And I’m going to be in sunny Florida, with noticeably less clothes on in exactly four weeks. So. I’m weighing back in on Wednesday. Encouraging comments welcome!

Oh, and currently, I’ve scaled back on the snacking since I’m spending every free moment entering giveaways. (No food ’round the ‘puter) And I’m busy reading entries to my first giveaway and my second giveaway. And making calorie-free Valentines. So I’m off to a good start.

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Today’s weight is 178lbs. Which is definitely up from before Christmas, but actually down from the disaster that was last week’s eating (cookies!candy!fudge!eggnog! oh my!).

I’m glad this part of Look Great in 2008 Challenge has been extended–I definitely looked better in August of 2007 than I do now!

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Really my goal for December is just not to gain weight-to lose weight is really just fat-free coolwhip on the cake!

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As for my exercise goal? Not wanting to be a complete failure, I dusted off the DVD last night and did it once. So I met my goal at 50%. Which is 50% more than I’ve done in a long time. So my DVD goal will remain at 2x. It really is a trick to fit it in–I can’t drag my butt out of bed any earlier (5:45 is early enough, don’t you think?), which leaves only after MAM’s bedtime to do it. Which worked out OK last night. (the exercise ball is too much of an obsession for her, so we keep it in the garage when she’s awake).

In other news, I’m on a ONE HOUR DELAY today. By far, this is one of the best bonuses of being a teacher. I know, it’s a pain as a parent if you have to get to work…but since the school can’t open without a staff, and most of the staff has children at other schools with delays, it’s sort of a vicious cycle. And honestly, driving a school bus is tricky enough business without weather. (mind you, my school doesn’t have school buses, but other staff members have kids who ride them)

If you are in the eastern midwest, be careful out there!

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But honestly, I’m not too worried. This seems to be my “maintaining range”. And if I’m not going to add in regular exercise, I don’t know that it will go much lower.

So this week’s goal: USE MY EXERCISE BALL AND DVD at least TWICE.

It’s here in writing folks, so you know it must be true. That is my goal. It’s taken me a long time to type it for that exact reason.

I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

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