Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
February food and health miscellany
Pulled Pork Empanadas - These sound tasty enough to try...
However, I'm not sure that my cholesterol and triglycerides would benefit from these. I started getting headaches in the afternoons, and finally connected them with the amount of diet sodas that I was drinking. More or less one a day, sometimes two. So I dropped the diet drinks and the headaches went away. But then came the bloodwork. So regular sodas are out. I've found that the sucralose in the reduced calorie gatorades doesn't seem to cause headaches, but they still contain the dreaded high fructose corn syrup, so I may be sticking with a slice of lemon in the water for the time being, and/ora mix of something fizzy (club soda? tonic water? sparkling water? What's the diff?) and the 'simply juice' products. Besides, blueberries and pomegranates are good for you.
Speaking of HFCS, I tried one of the throwback Pepsis, the ones with real sugar. It tasted funny to me. How's that for silly?
I got a stern talking to from the nurse practition at work about my bloodwork. She's giving me 90 days to reign it in, or she's prescribing me a statin. Today is day 16. And I'm apparently Vitamin D deficient, so there's that too.
I think the hardest part at the moment will be the sweets and sodas. I've never really had much of a sweet tooth, but boy, when someone tells you to cut them out, you start to notice them everywhere.
However, I'm not sure that my cholesterol and triglycerides would benefit from these. I started getting headaches in the afternoons, and finally connected them with the amount of diet sodas that I was drinking. More or less one a day, sometimes two. So I dropped the diet drinks and the headaches went away. But then came the bloodwork. So regular sodas are out. I've found that the sucralose in the reduced calorie gatorades doesn't seem to cause headaches, but they still contain the dreaded high fructose corn syrup, so I may be sticking with a slice of lemon in the water for the time being, and/ora mix of something fizzy (club soda? tonic water? sparkling water? What's the diff?) and the 'simply juice' products. Besides, blueberries and pomegranates are good for you.
Speaking of HFCS, I tried one of the throwback Pepsis, the ones with real sugar. It tasted funny to me. How's that for silly?
I got a stern talking to from the nurse practition at work about my bloodwork. She's giving me 90 days to reign it in, or she's prescribing me a statin. Today is day 16. And I'm apparently Vitamin D deficient, so there's that too.
I think the hardest part at the moment will be the sweets and sodas. I've never really had much of a sweet tooth, but boy, when someone tells you to cut them out, you start to notice them everywhere.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Follow ups and one liners and other miscellany
More diapers:
Cotton Babies Flip covers:
Used with an insert or a pre-fold, just a waterproof cover, no pocket, in the same style/closure as the BumGenius products.
For daytime use, I like these. Easy enough to change whatever you're using as the insert and retain the cover itself, unless there's a mess in there. Wipe off the interior surface if you feel it necessary. He tends to fuss very easily once he's wet these, so we'll change these more frequently than a disposable. I can't see using these overnight for this reason, as the pocket liner on the BumGenius works very well for keeping moisture away from his skin.
We've also inherited a whole box of Bumkins all in ones from a friend, and I would rate these the same as the flips, with the exception that you toss the whole thing in the wash instead of replacing your prefold or insert. Also, they are not adjustable in size, so if one was exclusively using these, one would buy as many as you need to survive getting through laundry, and then do it again when your child grows up a size. Not my favorite for that reason.
So, of everything we've tried, I like the BumGenius' for overnight, and Flips for the daytime.
And disposables for travelling. (Or lazy days. Shh.)
One (two?) liners:
New phrase, Firesale Blowout: When everything must go! Into the laundry.
et cetera:
(That reminded me of a pet store with the name Pet Cetera. We couldn't tell if it was a play on Peter Cetera, or et cetera, but it was clever either way.)
First smile:
Or, first one I caught on camera. Whichever works for me.
I got myself a digital picture frame with a gift card that I got from Office Depot through one of their holiday promotions. This is one of those things that I wouldn't buy for myself, but since I had the gift card, I didn't feel bad about picking one up. It sits on my desk at work and keeps me company with pictures of my family all through the day.
There hasn't been any leftover pizza at work yet this month. Perhaps we will need to remedy that.
Oh, and results from the blood drive tell me that my cholesterol is almost to the 'see a doctor' level. I'm telling you all this so that you can remind me that I don't need onion rings or philly cheesesteaks. At least I'm back to playing hockey, so that should help somewhat.
Cotton Babies Flip covers:
Used with an insert or a pre-fold, just a waterproof cover, no pocket, in the same style/closure as the BumGenius products.
For daytime use, I like these. Easy enough to change whatever you're using as the insert and retain the cover itself, unless there's a mess in there. Wipe off the interior surface if you feel it necessary. He tends to fuss very easily once he's wet these, so we'll change these more frequently than a disposable. I can't see using these overnight for this reason, as the pocket liner on the BumGenius works very well for keeping moisture away from his skin.
We've also inherited a whole box of Bumkins all in ones from a friend, and I would rate these the same as the flips, with the exception that you toss the whole thing in the wash instead of replacing your prefold or insert. Also, they are not adjustable in size, so if one was exclusively using these, one would buy as many as you need to survive getting through laundry, and then do it again when your child grows up a size. Not my favorite for that reason.
So, of everything we've tried, I like the BumGenius' for overnight, and Flips for the daytime.
And disposables for travelling. (Or lazy days. Shh.)
One (two?) liners:
New phrase, Firesale Blowout: When everything must go! Into the laundry.
et cetera:
(That reminded me of a pet store with the name Pet Cetera. We couldn't tell if it was a play on Peter Cetera, or et cetera, but it was clever either way.)
First smile:
Or, first one I caught on camera. Whichever works for me.
I got myself a digital picture frame with a gift card that I got from Office Depot through one of their holiday promotions. This is one of those things that I wouldn't buy for myself, but since I had the gift card, I didn't feel bad about picking one up. It sits on my desk at work and keeps me company with pictures of my family all through the day.
There hasn't been any leftover pizza at work yet this month. Perhaps we will need to remedy that.
Oh, and results from the blood drive tell me that my cholesterol is almost to the 'see a doctor' level. I'm telling you all this so that you can remind me that I don't need onion rings or philly cheesesteaks. At least I'm back to playing hockey, so that should help somewhat.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Cloth Diapering Product reviews
I've had 6 weeks of trial and error with which to base these reviews on.
Cotton Babies BumGenius 4.0 One Size cloth pocket diapers with snaps
Overall excellent. Emmett has the snaps on these pretty much as tight as they go, and we've never had a problem with leaks. We like the base colors, and we might go get some of the snazzier patterned ones to use in warmer weather when he shouldn't need pants.
Absorbency is good, cleanup is easy, and the fabric doesn't appear to stain easily. These do afford the option of a thinner or thicker insert, depending on your preference or needs. I'm not sure I'd want to try to go all night on just one, but it could be an option, as he doesn't seem to fuss much when he's wet it, and more often than not, we have to go in and check.
gDiapers
Caveat: we bought these with the intent of going between the reusable and the flushable inserts. This only covers the reusable inserts.
Overall just okay. As with any Velcro style product, you do have to be careful with washing these, as the hooks tend to stick to things other than the loops, and trap fibers, eventually reducing the efficacy of how they attach. In the small size, they were too big for him until he was about 3 weeks old. There's a tiny size that we didn't know about at the time, but I would think that you would only get a minimal amount of use out of them. I personally don't care much for the elastic waistband. At times it looks really really constricting and uncomfortable, but Emmett hasn't complained about it yet.
Cleanup with the reusable inserts seems to be more complicated than it needs to be. There's a snap in nylon liner and the reusable or flushable pad. I appreciate the breathable liner aspect, but I think having the pant and the liner as two separate pieces is unnecessary. Also, the flushable insert calculates at about 35 cents each, as opposed to 14 cents each for a disposable diaper. I'm all for earth friendly, but I'm sorry, it needs to be price comparable to traditional products for me. It's like organic foods to me. When the conventional apples are $1/lb less, i have a hard time going for the organic ones.
I suppose we'll give the flushable inserts a go, as they might be a viable option for travel.
Cotton Babies Flip diaper covers with snaps
A future review, as we haven't received them yet. They should be here today though. We'll let you know.
To be used with your stereotypical cloth diaper.
Rinse Ace Sprayer (http://goo.gl/cfsUh)
Cloth diaper sprayers seem to have two deficiencies in my opinion. One, they're overly expensive for what you are buying. Two, they hook into the toilet supply line, so there's no option for warm water.
This sprayer hooks into the shower head attachment. It's got a hose long enough to reach our toilet comfortably, which happens to be right next to the shower, so for some, this might not be an option without a hose extension of some sort. I much prefer having hot water with which to spray, and adjustability as far as how strong the spray is through use of the shower knob. It's also detachable, so you can hide in for when company comes over.
To be honest, we still have some things to sort out, like having a pail nearby the changing table so that we don't have to deal with dirty diapers right away. A bucket seems like a rather inelegant solution, but it would probably be the most effective.
Cotton Babies BumGenius 4.0 One Size cloth pocket diapers with snaps
Overall excellent. Emmett has the snaps on these pretty much as tight as they go, and we've never had a problem with leaks. We like the base colors, and we might go get some of the snazzier patterned ones to use in warmer weather when he shouldn't need pants.
Absorbency is good, cleanup is easy, and the fabric doesn't appear to stain easily. These do afford the option of a thinner or thicker insert, depending on your preference or needs. I'm not sure I'd want to try to go all night on just one, but it could be an option, as he doesn't seem to fuss much when he's wet it, and more often than not, we have to go in and check.
gDiapers
Caveat: we bought these with the intent of going between the reusable and the flushable inserts. This only covers the reusable inserts.
Overall just okay. As with any Velcro style product, you do have to be careful with washing these, as the hooks tend to stick to things other than the loops, and trap fibers, eventually reducing the efficacy of how they attach. In the small size, they were too big for him until he was about 3 weeks old. There's a tiny size that we didn't know about at the time, but I would think that you would only get a minimal amount of use out of them. I personally don't care much for the elastic waistband. At times it looks really really constricting and uncomfortable, but Emmett hasn't complained about it yet.
Cleanup with the reusable inserts seems to be more complicated than it needs to be. There's a snap in nylon liner and the reusable or flushable pad. I appreciate the breathable liner aspect, but I think having the pant and the liner as two separate pieces is unnecessary. Also, the flushable insert calculates at about 35 cents each, as opposed to 14 cents each for a disposable diaper. I'm all for earth friendly, but I'm sorry, it needs to be price comparable to traditional products for me. It's like organic foods to me. When the conventional apples are $1/lb less, i have a hard time going for the organic ones.
I suppose we'll give the flushable inserts a go, as they might be a viable option for travel.
Cotton Babies Flip diaper covers with snaps
A future review, as we haven't received them yet. They should be here today though. We'll let you know.
To be used with your stereotypical cloth diaper.
Rinse Ace Sprayer (http://goo.gl/cfsUh)
Cloth diaper sprayers seem to have two deficiencies in my opinion. One, they're overly expensive for what you are buying. Two, they hook into the toilet supply line, so there's no option for warm water.
This sprayer hooks into the shower head attachment. It's got a hose long enough to reach our toilet comfortably, which happens to be right next to the shower, so for some, this might not be an option without a hose extension of some sort. I much prefer having hot water with which to spray, and adjustability as far as how strong the spray is through use of the shower knob. It's also detachable, so you can hide in for when company comes over.
To be honest, we still have some things to sort out, like having a pail nearby the changing table so that we don't have to deal with dirty diapers right away. A bucket seems like a rather inelegant solution, but it would probably be the most effective.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
What a difference a month makes!
Short and to the point, I'd rather be with Emmett than blogging.
At the moment, I can't be with Emmett, since he's in California visiting his grandparents, and I'm not, so I don't really have that as an excuse.
V, consider this your shoutout. Enjoy the leftover pizza.
Up until yesterday, I hadn't filled up my car with gas since October. I suppose since I can't have a car seat in it, there wasn't really much point.
Let me run through the new parent stuff:
Yes, it's awesome. Even at 3 AM when he won't sleep.
I seem to have become more or less immune to his cry, in that it doesn't irritate me. That doesn't mean it's not physically painful if he gets a good shout right in my ear.
Yes, you get sleep deprived. To the point where when talking with your spouse, you need to re-iterate what you're talking about, even if it's only been a few minutes, and there hasn't been anything else said since the last sentence. Pronouns don't work.
Flying with a 4 week old isn't so bad. We'll find out tomorrow how flying with a 5 week old is. Probably not much different. (famous last words)
Poop can have a trajectory.
While I don't mind having jury duty, tomorrow is awful inconvenient, but that's my fault for not asking to have it rescheduled.
I opted to stay home with wife and kid for 4 weeks after he made his appearance. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.
I'm a nerd when it comes to bath water temp. The floaty ducky with the 'hot' stamp on it is nice, but I like using the kitchen thermometer, just to be sure. I'm also a nerd when it comes to bottle temp.
One of my readers pointed out to me that they don't really HAVE to read this, as they pretty much have a good idea of what I'm going to say, because I've usually told them everything that goes into this blog. Thanks for reading anyway, D.
To come, more adventures in cloth diapering, that is, if I haven't been put onto a major trial and sequestered.
At the moment, I can't be with Emmett, since he's in California visiting his grandparents, and I'm not, so I don't really have that as an excuse.
V, consider this your shoutout. Enjoy the leftover pizza.
Up until yesterday, I hadn't filled up my car with gas since October. I suppose since I can't have a car seat in it, there wasn't really much point.
Let me run through the new parent stuff:
Yes, it's awesome. Even at 3 AM when he won't sleep.
I seem to have become more or less immune to his cry, in that it doesn't irritate me. That doesn't mean it's not physically painful if he gets a good shout right in my ear.
Yes, you get sleep deprived. To the point where when talking with your spouse, you need to re-iterate what you're talking about, even if it's only been a few minutes, and there hasn't been anything else said since the last sentence. Pronouns don't work.
Flying with a 4 week old isn't so bad. We'll find out tomorrow how flying with a 5 week old is. Probably not much different. (famous last words)
Poop can have a trajectory.
While I don't mind having jury duty, tomorrow is awful inconvenient, but that's my fault for not asking to have it rescheduled.
I opted to stay home with wife and kid for 4 weeks after he made his appearance. If you have the means, I highly recommend it.
I'm a nerd when it comes to bath water temp. The floaty ducky with the 'hot' stamp on it is nice, but I like using the kitchen thermometer, just to be sure. I'm also a nerd when it comes to bottle temp.
One of my readers pointed out to me that they don't really HAVE to read this, as they pretty much have a good idea of what I'm going to say, because I've usually told them everything that goes into this blog. Thanks for reading anyway, D.
To come, more adventures in cloth diapering, that is, if I haven't been put onto a major trial and sequestered.
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