Today in School

We spent all day learning about Lead Safety for Renovation and Remodelling. Afterwards we took a short exam and once pass we'll get a letter of completion.

A definite feather in my job seeking cap.

5 Ways to get HFCS out of your life

Well the health udpate is I gained 3lbs,  stress from the news in Japan, school, and my always present under-employment.  I need to relax and pay more attention to what's going in my body. Like my never-ending fight to avoid high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  Honestly at this point I'm in it for 2 big reasons: it's not natural and I want all my bang for my buck. If I spend 3 dollars on a bottle of ketchup I'd better get the real deal.  Here's 5 ways that have helped me ease HFCS out my life:

1. Switch your condiments Ketchup, honey mustard, salad dressings, so many of these have HFCS. My number one condiment is Ketchup, I'm not here to preach about the high salt of ketchup just the fact that it's supposed to have sugar and tomatoes and vinegar, nothing else.  By default Hunt's ketchup has no HFCS and it can be found at Dollar Trees if your lucky. It's a lot thicker and a touch sweeter than Heinz, which has always made it a natural favourite of mine.  
2. Switch your "health foods"  So you gave up candy bars and skittles for yoghurt and fruit snacks?  Check the labels, you may still be in the same boat when it comes to unnatural sugars.  I grew up on flavoured yoghurt (my mom loves the stuff) but around 2008 I discovered Fage yoghurt and I haven't looked back. If you like thick creamy foods you'll love it!  There's store brands popping up nowadays but Fage 0% remains my favourite followed by Fage 2%, lol.
3. Eat more whole foods This was the hardest part for me, I admittedly thrived off of  diet tv dinners, fruit snacks, and other foods. But I started noticing all the HFCS and other random food ingredients. I am slowly suceeding in eating more whole grains such as wheatberries, eating more raw fruits and veggies (esp with my greek yogurt) and fast food is losing appeal exponetially which leads me to...
4. Cook more at home! It's a recession save money and your body!  You don't have to be a chef to whip a bit of something at home. Some Italian diced tomatoes over whole wheat cappellini with a bit of basil and cheese, a turkey sandwich, baked boneless chicken breasts. The more you do it the easier it gets! Your wallet and your body will thank-you
5. Read labels!  All of the label I know us dieters are always looking at calories, fat, sugar, carbs, sodium whatever your modus operandi may be, but look a little lower at what is making up that food.  Nutra grain Apple cinnamon seem like a healthy treat but they have HFCS in them. who knew? I didn't until I looked. Be more aware of what you're putting in your body and no matter what your health goals may be you will see a difference. 

5 ways you can help Japan

The update on my end is that 2 loved ones are confirmed dead and 1 is still missing. Unfortunately it pales in comparison to my closest Cali-pal, Miko. I really can't watch the news any-more because it's heart-breaking, though I stay in touch with loved ones in Kyoto and Nagasaki also I read the Japanese and English reports. The video footage is too much right now.  As I'm trying my hardest just to make rent these days I feel helpless that all I can do is donate $10 and buy a button from Zazzle to maintain awareness. Then it occurred to me that I can blog and increase awareness and maybe some of you can do a bit to help. 8 bits make a byte, 1024 bytes make a kilobyte, etc. So here are some ways we can all help:

1. Donate to the International Red Cross/Crescent by clicking here
2. Here in the SF area many events are going on with the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC), check out their website www.jcccnc.org
3. Buy a tee, button, or other item from Zazzle's  Japan Relief store, or donate a design of your own!  Here's one of mine "Hapas for Japan"
4. The human suffering is great but we can't forget the countless pets left abandoned by this disaster. Animal Refuge Kansai has more information. My neighbour's friend has first hand experience with this organization. Click for their website
5. Pray, Meditate, and keep Japan in your thoughts. It will take time for Japan to rebuild and we can't allow it to become yesterday's news.

Thank-you for your support

- JDK "the K is for Kumiko" Shepard

Tsunami udpate

First off thanks to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. Luckily all my loved ones live in the Southern part of the country. However 3 people I know are still missing, unfortunately one friend lives in Minami Sanriku so things don't look good. Most of my concern goes to one of my closest friends here in California is half-Japanese and all her family is from Northern Japan and it's been so heart-breaking to see her go through all this. Like any other disaster I've made myself stay away from the news after the first day. Miko and I spent so much time watching NHK and listening to the Japanese radio that English became a distant memory. I don't understand Japanese as well as Miko but you get the idea if you know the language. Seems to me Japan was talking about nuclear accidents before it hit English news. Maybe it was a "saving face" thing I don't know.  All I can say is that I wish the best for everybody in Japan.

In related news, I was completely fine.  My mom called me at 6:00 am about a tsunami warning, I didn't even know that Oakland got tsunami warnings.  They closed the ferries and stayed on alert with BART and highways but we were fine.  There was one picture springing up around the internet near me, but honestly I think it  was nothing compared to 10m waves.


Don't give up Japan!

A major health update!

It's been awhile. I finally have high-speed internet at home again! So hopefully I can get back into blogging more. I was doing so well until I was without internet.

So I finally decided to weigh around my birthday, February 7th and guess what? I'd lost 10lbs since the beginning of the year. Since then I've lost 2 more. I have to say that I've been trying to eat as balanced as I can and exercise.

My foodstamps ran out early this month. Despite the stereotype I eat healthier because of my foodstamps than I ever really do with cash. It's hard when it's the end of the month to spend $4 on salad mix when you know in a few days you'll have funds that are specifically for buying groceries. I slip and say "I'll just buy this mega cheap box of lean pockets, baby carrots and a cube (24pk) of Diet dr. pepper". It could've been worse but still I should've bought more veggies. In a few more days I'll have my food stamps again and I'll go to the grocer and farmer's market and get some veggies.

On the warmer days I have been actually craving salads. Like the ones I used to make for myself during lunch when I worked at Applewood Golf: grilled chicken with sea salt and coarse pepper, romaine/iceberg mix, onions, a few small cubes of havarti and vinagrette. Not bad for 3.00 ne? (we used to get food half priced as employees). Also I notice just like I stopped missing HFCS, I am slowly losing my taste for fast food which kind of bums JB out but he knows it's for the best.

Exercise-wise my sister sent me a resistance and Dynaband with some exercises so I've been using those 5x a week and I reduced my weights to 3x. I was starting get a bit stocky in the shoulders so I'm trying to focus on lighter weights and more cardio.

I haven't taken anymore pictures but some of my bigger clothes that I bought when I was in Macon are getting too loose to wear even to construction class. Even a pair of sz 20 plus size Old Navy pants I bought specifically for moving to California are getting too loose. And I've had them taken about an inch in the waist since I moved here. That tailor tried to convince me to take them in 2 inches but I wouldn't listen. Now I have to wear them with a belt or they will slip down to much, not to the point falling off but I keep having to re-adjust them.

I've been a bit heavy on the sugars lately so I'm going to try and calm down a bit. Also exercise a bit more on the weekends.

Wish me luck!