Ramblings

I miss all the fun.  Although I'm done with fever and sore throat, the coughing lingers on; therefore, Cliff and the dog have been going on their daily walk without me.  Yesterday they had barely headed off, Cliff tells me, when Iris' tail made contact with the electric fence; she got her first electric shock.  
I had wondered why she was scratching at the front door not five minutes after they left the house.  
So I watched Cliff and Iris heading off for todays walk:  Where Iris normally ducks under the fence and runs a few circles on the neighbors' property, today she would only look in that direction and then look back at Cliff.  She did this repeatedly.  Funny stuff.  I can see them now out on the point, and Iris has finally gotten the courage to get more than ten yards away from Cliff.  
I'll stop here to give a plug to Sparkpeople.com.   Folks, the only way I can lose weight is to keep track of calories, and Sparkpeople helps with that.  You can sign up for free.  You can actually enter your own recipe and put how many servings it makes, and this website will not only calculate calories, but also any nutrients you'd like to track; then the recipe is there any time you use it again.  Thanks to Sparkpeople, I found out Cliff and I were woefully short on calcium intake and began buying supplements.  
Enough about that.  
Summer before last I had a bumper crop of butternut squash.  I learned to make squash fries, squash pies, squash bread, and our favorite, butternut squash soup.  I froze many bags of pureed squash for future use.  Our favorite dish was the soup, but I've been leery of trying to use pureed squash in a recipe that calls for peeled, cubed squash.  However, it does end up pureed after it's cooked, in this recipe, so why have I been so hesitant to try it?  I'll let you know how it turns out.    

Why YOU should try Sparkpeople, just for a day

You can see on the right, at the top of my sidebar, that I'm promoting Sparkpeople.com. It's free, and it's the best site ever to help you track what you eat.

But let's say you don't need (or want) to lose weight.

I suggest you create a Sparkpeople account and enter everything you eat, just for one day.

You're going to be amazed at what's lacking in your diet.

It's because of Sparkpeople.com that I found out both Cliff and I are woefully lacking in our calcium intake; I corrected that by purchasing calcium tablets at Sam's Club.

Also, we don't get enough fiber, at least not when we're limiting calories.

Amazingly, we get plenty of vitamin C most days, just from the food we eat; we don't have a lot of citrus fruit laying around, but we do indulge in all kinds of veggies.

Most brand name foods are already on the site, including fast foods. You can enter nutrients for your own recipes if need be. You select which nutrients you want to track.

Just give it a try. Tell 'em Donna sent you.

Sparkpeople.com

Cliff and I are really getting down to the nitty-gritty about losing our excess holiday weight, and we've both dropped some pounds.

I couldn't do it without Sparkpeople.com.

It's a website where you can monitor everything you eat, keep track of calories, fiber, and carbs, and log your exercise... free! All you have to do is sign up.

You can type in your own recipes or foods if they aren't listed on the site, and they'll be there next time you have that food. There are all sorts of recipes to try, added by other members.

You can choose what nutrients you want to track, which has been quite informative for me: for instance, I found out Cliff and I weren't even getting 10% of our minimum daily requirement of calcium, so we started taking a supplement for that.

There's all sorts of information about exercise and fitness at Sparkpeople, right at your fingertips.

It takes awhile to learn your way around the site, but once you know the ropes, it's one of the best finds on the Internet!