My Afflation

Modified from a classic cornbread recipe. It's not as bright yellow as traditional corn bread because of the whole wheat flour, but it's just as tasty with butter and honey.  Whole Wheat Corn Bread Recipe by Annette Holland Prep time: 5 minutes Cook time: 25 minutes Total time: 30 minutes Yield: 8-12 servings Ingredients 2/3 cup whole wheat flour 1/3 cup all purpose flour 1 cup yellow corn meal 1 tablespoon baking powder 1/4 cup sugar in the raw 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 1 egg 1/3 cup olive oil or unsalted butter (melted) Cooking Directions Preheat oven to 400 F and grease an 8x8 pan. Set aside. Mix all wet ingredients together. Mix all dry ingredients together. Mix all ingredients together until moist. Batter will be lumpy. Pour into greased pan and bake for 25-30 minut...

Today, I am ashamed of Mamavation. Today they are acting like the bullies. I'm probably the only one with this point of view. I don't know what it's like to be the fat kid. I had the opposite problem growing up; everyone thought I was anorexic. That's teasing and hate of a different sort. Today, I am raising a daughter who weekly claims that she is fat. Somehow in the two years when she was in her father's custody it got put into her head that she's fat. She's not. She's beautiful and strong and tall, but got her dad's body type instead of mine. Because she is not stick thin, she thinks she's fat. I have to remind her every day that she's not. That she is stronger than most of the boys her age and that she is *FIT* . Being skinny does not equal being healthy . But I am teaching her healthy choices and what it means to have a healthy lifestyle even it if means she will never have my body type. I am teaching her to be strong and healthy...

I just registered for WEGO Health’s exciting new webinar and I wanted to share with everyone. Here are the particulars: What: Health Activism in Real Life! Who: Health Activist Conversation with Jen Pettit and Amanda D When: Thursday May 26th at 7pm EST (the webinar will last one half hour) Where: Sign up here ( http://bit.ly/kwM1QP ) and you’ll get all the details The webinar is for anyone who’s interested in expanding their Health Activist reach and in bringing their online activist into their “real life”. As online Health Activists, our advocacy centers on utilizing the web for our outreach. By signing up for this webinar, we’ll learn valuable tips from Health Activist Jen Pettit, Sjogren’s Health Activist and blogger, and no stranger to getting face-to-face with her community to spread her Health Activism! Jen will share tips for starting your own organized event or simply for educating people in person about your condition. By signing up you’ll also have the chan...

Culture  --  the total of the inherited ideas, beliefs, values, and knowledge,which constitute the shared bases of social action the total range of activities and ideas of a group of people with shared traditions, which are transmitted and reinforced by members of the group: the Mayan culture  biology --  a. See also culture medium the experimental growth of microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, in a nutrient substance (culture medium), usually under controlled conditions Earlier this week I had an opportunity to sit down with Dannon and Mia Hamm at the Treehouse Social Club in Los Angeles with a few other mom bloggers. Dannon is launching a new campaign aimed at encouraging Californians to live a more active and healthier lifestyle . Mia Hamm at the Treehouse Social Club The campaign consists of five key components: Encouraging families to take a pledge to make healthy food choices and include physical activity A partnership with socc...

Well, my body got tired of waiting around for me to go to the doctor and took things into its own hands. Last Tuesday I started feeling ill. First I was just tired after lunch, then I thought it was boredom as I was getting that malaise feeling I get when bored-out-of-my-ever-loving-mind . By the time quitting time ran around I had lost my appetite and just wanted to go home and sleep. I’ve had exhaustion before and figured I was about to have another bout of it.

In the interest of killing two birds with one stone, I am combining A Southern Fairytales' Mouthwatering Mondays with Mamavation Monday . Why? Because I miss posting delicious recipes on Mondays for your enjoyment, and two, I am going to try to pledge to the sistahood . Delicious and healthy can be done. Even for a carb addict like myself. Regarding the Sistahood, I can't do everything they want a pledge to do because of my work and commute schedule, but I can do my best to get moving. And in fact did this past weekend (oh boy my arms!). Remembering to post pictures will be hard, but I can do that tonight. I got in 60 of the proposed 100 minutes of movement yesterday. Come to think of it, I walked on Tuesday and Thursday, so I think I went over the 100, woot! Thank goodness for CardioTrainer. Last week I actually had time to menu plan, and all the new recipes went over swimmingly, even the one that exploded in my face. There have been no complaints about having to eat lefto...

How timely. This arrived in my inbox this morning from my employer's health benefits program. I write this with sniffling, post-nasal drip , sore throat and body aches. My observations are in red. Did you know? People who sleep fewer than 6 hours a night have a 50% increased risk of viral infections and an increased risk of heart disease and stroke (woke up sick) Sleep allows both the body and the brain to rest and heal. Without enough sleep the brain loses power and an individual will have problems with memory and concentration (and here I've been blaming all that time I was on Zoloft) Adults need 7-8 hours of sleep each night and school ages children/teens need at least 9-12 hours of sleep a night to be productive (I am lucky to get 6.5 during the week) Driving while sleepy can be just as dangerous as driving drunk, since your reaction time are slower when you a sleepy (been there,done that, DO NOT want the t-shirt) If you're one of the many people who are short o...

Claritin D (Loratadine and Pseudoephedrine) Drug Information: Uses, Side Effects, Drug Interactions and Warnings at RxList : "Psychiatric: Aggressive reaction, agitation, anxiety, apathy, confusion, decreased libido, depression, emotional lability, euphoria, impaired concentration, irritability, paroniria." Agitation, anxiety, paranoia ... and just plain over-tired possibly. My daughter has allergies and I just moved. Somewhere around here I have children's liquid Claritin, but I couldn't find it. Triaminic Cough and Cold works well for her allergies too but she didn't want to knock out right after dinner (I should have listened to my first instinct)... so I gave her one tab of her brother's generic Claritin (Equate brand from Wal-Mart). Whoa. I don't think I will do that again. She had dinner within an hour of taking it, then bath, and somehow between "wash your hair and if you're itching from grass wash your body again" and "I...

Preschoolers get a lesson on the importance of washing hands, which is particularly important during flu season, in a segment featuring Handy Manny during Disney Channel 's Playhouse Disney  programming. The interstitial will repeat multiple times daily and will also feature a link to the Center for Disease Control's flu prevention micro-site. Visit the Handy Manny Staying Healthy site for all the links and a parent resource on talking to your children about the flu. Related articles by Zemanta Swine Flu Death Toll Continues To Rise, Especially Among Children (huffingtonpost.com) Swine Flu Kids Getting Faster Drug Treatment (nlm.nih.gov) Review Shows Safety of H1N1 Vaccine, Officials Say (nytimes.com)

A mixed bag 1. I've been served an eviction notice, this is a new experience for me. My landlord returned my check, so it wasn't for non-payment, exactly. 2. I haven't had a panic attack yet over the situation. This is a good thing. 3. My son seems ok, then again, his life has been nothing but turmoil since we moved back to CA. No wonder he wants to move back to OR. 4. My kids are suburbanites. 5. I can only seem to get decent jobs in CA, but can't seem to afford it still. 6. I like prunes, but my son is the one who needs them. 7. I should get up at 6 more often, it's 930 and I'm tired. 8. How do people do this week after week? I'm losing creativity. 9. My daughter really loves the dogs. If I don't find an affordable place to live the dogs will need a new home. 10. I still have a job. 11. But I'm a contractor. 12. Hrm, not funny at all. This is what happens when I try to blog when tired. 13. Joy has arrived just in time for bed. I'm trying to r...

I am always in pain because it's a fact of my life now. I can deal with the dull, low throbbing. That I can ignore and get on with my life with generally no problem. Then there are days when I hurt everywhere. I wake up in pain. Most often in my back, but lately my back, neck, shoulders, hips, and sometimes hands just HURT! And that much thoracic pain usually causes my IBS to act up. What a way to start the morning. Every morning. And Lord please, the days when my IBS acts up when I am commuting. THAT'S THE WORST, the most mortifyinghorribleembarrasing moments of my life, mainly because I think I have gotten off scott-free for the day. And then, BAM! make a run for the bathroom, the nearest bathroom, any bathroom.   A lot of my stress and high anxiety are caused by my chronic pain and vice versa. A never-ending cycle (not to be confused with the Never-Ending Story ). My chronic pain could be a symptom of clinical depression, but I haven't been diagnosed as s...

You'll probably encounter some thorny problems in the career domain; but you'll rapidly recover your good judgment and your sharpness of mind. Don't overrate your strength: rest will prove necessary; too great fatigue can provoke backaches and heart weaknesses. Put a little distance between you and your family-in-law if you want to preserve your conjugal understanding; don't leave it any possibility to interfere with your private life, otherwise you'll have to cope with an awkward situation.