"There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something. " ~ Henry Ford  

I beat my personal best for daily steps taken (2012)..... yay me!  I've been very diligent over the last 4 days, and I'm gun ho about keeping it going.

Personal Bests

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." ~ Aristotle
 
Wednesday was a really good day for exercise.  I started off the day by waking up a decent time and took care of 3-4 small tasks around the house.  Around 11am I opened up the shed and removed everything from the inside.  I gave it a good sweeping and proceeded to get all the tools / lumber ready for the task ahead.  I built a really sturdy 5 x 5 shelf (more like a platform because it's not attached to the shed) that stands about 3' 10" off the ground.  That height allowed me to store big items like the snow blower, patio chairs and such, underneath the shelf, as well as a ton of heavy stuff on the shelf like 2 sets of winter tires, fertilizer, etc..

After it was built and set in place, I reloaded the shed back up.   All told I spent about 3-4 hrs on the project and I was pooped after I finished.

The next day revealed how hard I had worked in the form of sore muscles and a really sore knee.  According to my Body Media device, I ended up beating all 6 of my personal best scores previously set in March.

Since I was too sore to do anything else yesterday, I went back to work on the new site.  I designed the graphics show here to illustrate my achievements.  I'm not much of an artist so stuff like this takes me eons to complete..... it also doesn't help being a perfectionist.

I'm not sure how long it will be before the new site is ready, but at my current pace I imagine it will be a long time from now.

Although my knee was still really sore, I managed to go out for a decent length walk today to try and take advantage of the great weather we've been having.

That's all for now..... have a great weekend.

Food Wars: Peanut Butter

"Peanut butter (is) the pâté of childhood" ~ Florence Fabricant


Are all peanut butters created equally? Like anything else in life the answer is no. The real question you need to ask is: What makes one peanut butter product better than the other?


Based on the label alone a less savvy consumer might be inclined to choose the Kraft product. After all it is lower in calories and in fat than the PC Blue Menu Peanut Butter. It even provides the same fiber, protein, and iron content. Yes it has some sodium (70mg), and a bit more carbs (3 more), but that's hardly a concern right?

Unfortunately a quick look at the label isn't enough to make a buying decision. The label itself is only half the story. The numbers/values on the label are derived by the ingredients found in the food product (our peanut butter). The ingredients help us understand the numbers/values listed on the label and therefore help us complete the story.

In this case a quick scan of the ingredients of both products tells us almost everything we need to know.

In the PC peanut butter, there is only 1 ingredient..... peanuts. This means that the numbers/values found on the label are based solely on this one ingredient.

The Kraft peanut butter on the other hand derives it's numbers or values from "select roasted peanuts" plus 4 other ingredients: Corn Dextrin, Sugar, Salt and Hydrogenated, which are all considered food additives:

"Food additives are substances added to food to preserve flavor or enhance its taste and (or) appearance." ~ Wikipedia

If you would like to read up on food additives, a complete list can also be found on Wikipedia HERE. Even without the knowledge of what food additives are these 4 ingredients should be raising all kinds of red flags. First off the last thing anyone needs more of in their daily diet is sugar or salt. There's plenty of both found naturally in most foods. For example: 1 medium carrot contains 42mg of sodium and 2.89g of sugar (USDA). The other 2 ingredients both contain scientific sounding jargon ("dextrin" & "hydrogenated") which is a dead giveaway that they're not needed or healthy, and that they are most likely used as an additive.

If you view the information on the label, and take into account the ingredients used, you will have a much better understanding of which food product is the better choice....... and in this case the much better choice is the PC Blue Menu Smooth Peanut Butter.

I was going to end this post here, but I figured that I would share a few things that I'm still unable to answer and am therefore still searching for the answers to:

1. How can 2 peanut butters (with the same serving size) have the same sugar content (1g) when the PC product has only peanuts in it, and the Kraft product has peanuts and added sugar?
2. Why doesn't the serving size (15g) equal the total grams of the nutrition amounts (17g for Kraft and 18g for PC). Example for Kraft: 6g Fat +6g Carbs + 1g Fibre + 1 Sugar + 3g Protein = 17g

Hopefully I'll figure out the answers to these 2 conundrums at some point..... and when I do I'll report back.

Easter

"Close only counts in hand shoes and horse grenades" ~ Bryan Wells

Yes..... I actually said that this weekend. The sad thing is that the above quote was more successful than I was in regards to my eating. I was really off this weekend and I let my emotional eating get the better of me. It didn't help that we were at Sherri's parents place for the weekend, because there's tons of stuff there that I wouldn't of eaten if we were here. Chocolate, cookies, crackers, and chips were the main culprits.

I haven't been blogging lately, but that's primarily because I've been working on my new webpage. My progress was pretty much at a stand still over the last couple of weeks, but I'm hoping to start fresh again tomorrow.

Lots of stuff to do this week.... report back soon.

To Do List

"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." ~ John Lennon ~ Sean D'Sousa (used with permission)

As a person with A.D.D a To-Do List is an absolute MUST when trying to remain focused and on top of daily/weekly tasks. Keeping on top of things helps me reduce stress, and reducing stress helps me remain content and happy.......a key to Mental Wellness.

I've decided to change the To-Do List items and the post date to the beginning of each week as there's no need to populate my blog with a tonne of past completed lists.

Notes for this week:
It's been EONS since I've updated/kept track of/used this list. With the new job things are pretty busy, but it's always a good thing to keep track of things before they run a muck. I didn't want to go to gun ho with the list, so I kept it short..... for now.

To Do List: items to be completed before Mar. 30th, 2010(High Priority items are red)

- download sherri's itunes songs
- remove excess programs/files off laptop
- finish painting patch on basement wall
- fill nail holes and caulk baseboard in basement
- hang 2 pictures near exercise area
- book tattoo appointment
- digitize remainder of 3rd shelf of CD's
- make a recycling trip


Future To Do's:


- practice with M.I.G welder

- start/finish "My weight, My life: Part 4" post for blog
- read 1st chapter of my meditation book


Spring/Summer To Do's:

- paint front walkway
- build ground level deck at rear of house
- build a window box for Sherri's office
- build a storage shed